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THE PALACE AND THE CORRIDOR
The Torah Koan of “This World” and the “Coming World”
Rabbi Nasan Zvi Finkel
Translation by Joel David Bakst © 1980,2007
(Translated from Ohr haTzafoon (The Hidden Light) - A collection of discourses compiled from copies of musar talks delivered by the Torah sage Rabbi Nasan Zvi Finkel (1849-1927), known affectionately as the "Sabba (grandfather) from Slovodka". He was the Rosh Yeshiva (dean) of the famed Slovodka Seminary in Europe & Israel and one of the leaders of the 19th century Musar Movement).
[Luz Lesson: This is a crucial Torah sod (sod/secret=an experiential whole whose whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts) that requires an altered state of consciousness to “get it” and/or it will per force put you into an altered state if you do “get it”! Like any good Torah koan, it requires long and deep reflection. I have been savoring this koan and returning to it regularly now for decades, “seeing it” and integrating it. I first encountered this unusually challenging mind puzzle during a traditional Yeshiva “musar sh'moos” where, during one semester, each day a different sermon from the book Ohr haTzafoon was presented to the students and analyzed. This transcribed talk, originally delivered some one hundred years ago, appeared so bizarre and almost heretical to the conventional way of religious thinking that the Rosh Yeshiva outright rejected it and asserted that the Yeshiva student who recorded the original sermon delivered by Rabbi Finkel grossly erred in what he understood! I, however, persisted in grappling with the challenge (“not satiated with dry words and you no longer find fulfillment in the external things that your eyes beheld in the days of your youth”- see below) and “chewed” on it for years until I started to “get it” and, indeed began to see “my world in my lifetime”. If you also no longer find fulfillment in the external things that your eyes beheld in the days of your youth and use the language and tools of Luz you can too literally begin to see “your world in your life time”.]
Olam HaZeh and Olam HaBah
The Holy One, blessed be He, created two worlds. There is the one we call Olam haBah (the coming world) and the other we call Olam haZeh (the present world).
How do we understand the relationship between these two worlds? Olam haBah is the dimension of pure thought - the soul world in which the righteous bask in the splendor of the Shechinah (the Presence of G-d). Olam haZeh, on the other hand, is our gross material world in which the lower senses exert a forceful domination. The latter was not created except for that it serves as the corridor (Prozdor) through which we enter into the palace (Traklin) which is true life and divine wisdom (Chochmah Elyonah). In our mind's eye this is how we picture these two worlds according to the simple understanding.
However, if you aspire to become a master of your soul (Baal Nefesh), if you still feel in yourself that your spirit is not satiated with dry words and you no longer find fulfillment in the external things that your eyes beheld in the days of your youth [this is being addressed to Torah scholars, young and old!], and behold, you desire to descend into the inner depths of things according to the true spirit of the Torah (Ruach haTorah) - then come and I will reveal to you the mystery of creation (Sod haBriah). You will then understand and see your world in your very own lifetime.
When the Holy One, blessed be He, created reality He did not create it except through Chochmah (wisdom) alone. The creation, in its entirety, is not but a revelation of Divine Wisdom (Chochmah Elyonah). This is the quality that the Holy One desired to bestow onto His creation. Behold, even Olam haZeh, which appears to us as corporeal matter, it is written concerning it, "G-d, with Chochmah founded the earth". (Psalms).
Now, imagine this. If it were not for Adam's sin and the decree that he must die, he would have continued to live in his world forever. He would never go on to any other world. Which would we then call Olam haZeh? Which Olam haBah? What distinction would we find between these two worlds? Is it possible that the Holy One created the earth and placed Adam upon it only in order to sin, to receive the punishment of death and have his world destroyed?! Rather, we know that Adam was not created in order that he should sin. He was supposed to live and exist forever and his world with him.
This being the case, don't you clearly see that there never could have been created a world that would serve only as a corridor, i.e. that the essence and purpose of any world being only an intermediary or preparation for another? Rather, all worlds, in their entirety, have but one essence and one form together.
We find, however, that the Torah does make a distinction between the worlds. There is the world which we call the Traklin and there is the world which we call the Prozdor. You must know now that both of these are code names for Divine Wisdom. There is a type of Chochmah called "Traklin"and there is a type of Chochmah called "Prozdor". Our present plane of existence - Olam haZeh - is not called a corridor because it only exits into a palace and is not a palace itself. Rather, it is only called a corridor because it is a unique type of palace that simultaneously contains the quality of corridor itself. Why then did the Holy One alter the appearance of this palace from all the others? What has been added that is not found in any other world?
The answer is that this palace - Olam haZeh - is the very purpose of the Creation and of all that exist within it. The ultimate intention of the creation process is precisely to produce such a phenomena as this - Man. That through the power of his Chochmah he will be able to increase Chochmah upon Chochmah, to ascend from one plane to another, and to magnify dimension within dimension. Thus, he was not intended to be like the angels who are separated consciousnesses (Sechlim Nevdalim) and who are forced in their perception and do not have the possibility to deviate in the least. Due to this quality they do not have the ability to ascend from their level and they stay wherever they are throughout their entire existence.
In order to grant the possibility to this creation - called Man - to fulfill his function the Holy One created a sphere of Chochmah for him that has the unique property of increasing magnification. This is the Garden of Eden in which the Holy One placed Adam. There is, therefore, no comparison to this sphere of Chochmah - which is the world created by G-d expressly for Man - to all the other levels of Chochmah that were created.
Every aspect of reality is an eternal yet stationary level of Divine Wisdom, each according to the measure that the Holy One revealed from His Wisdom. Each set level is a palace of wisdom with each and every angel in its respective palace. But, this is not the case with the palace of wisdom designed especially for Man. After the fact that the Holy One bestowed onto Man that he would have the power to elevate himself fromone dimension to another, there is no longer any stationary or specifically set level of wisdom to his Palace of Wisdom.
Behold, if he merits to stand within any given level of his Wisdom for even one brief period and not to move from it, then immediately he receives his reward for it and is elevated along with his world to an increasingly higher level. The degree of wisdom that defined the palace the moment before now becomes the very corridor to the next palace of wisdom through which he enters the moment after. This is the way of Man - to evolve from one palace to another for all eternity.
Therefore, we do not have before us a corridor and palace. There is no gross, physical world that whose essence is only a means towards an end. Rather, we have before us a world of Wisdom that has concealed within it the wonderful quality of elevation. This is its aspect of the corridor and only because of this is it called the corridor.
Precisely because of this we see among the masters of the world - the Patriarchs - that despite the fact that they reached the highest levels that man can attain they did not separate themselves from Olam haZeh - our apparent physical world. Rather, throughout their greatness they were involved daily and for their entire lives. This was true to such an extent that we find that Ya'akov our Father, the perfection of the Patriarchs, was a shepherd for 21 years for Lavan the Aramean. This was because through his greatness he saw his world in his lifetime and he discovered within everyday things, which appear to us so simple and external, peaks upon peaks of Divine Wisdom.
As a result, angels were sent from above to teach him [the hidden mysteries] concerning the [coloring patterns of the] sheep - akudim, nikudim and birudim [the primordial worlds of "Bonded", "Pointed", & "Interconnected"]. To this day, generation after generation, when we stand in prayer we are dependent upon the merit of these [patterns that Ya'akov our Father engraved upon the sticks].
Also because of this, where the written Torah mentions the reward for the Mitzvot we do not find explicitly stated also the reward that is given after one's death. Because, if one does not see his world in his own lifetime, this is a loss for him, as opposed to the completed man whose corporeality has been shed and he has returned to his true divine form. This then is [a fractal portion of] his true Olam haBah - his [endless] coming world [s] - now in the very present. And "Greater is one moment of tshuvah (repentance) and good deeds in this world than all the life of the coming world." (Pirkey Avot).
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