The Breaking of the Vessels (Part 1)

We’re told that the existence of flaws and of their repair is rooted in the issue of the aforementioned “Breaking of the Vessels” (Petach 37). That’s to say that the entire universe of right and wrong, justice and injustice, of things gone awry then gone right (awry again, then right again, etc.), of things being on-course then off-course (etc.) et al is rooted in the mysterious notion of Sh’virat HaKeilim, “The Breaking of the Vessels”.

As one Kabbalist put it, “it is one of the most sublime and arcane mysteries of the Torah and is the underpinning of the entire science of Kabbalah which is itself meant to explain God’s role in creation”. It helps to explain “the mystery of free choice and all the harm that has come about in all the worlds as a consequence of (bad choices)”, as well as the rectification of things that come about through correct choices, the role of Torah in all that, the form and substance of the yetzer harah and yetzer hatov and much more [1].

So we’d clearly need to do what we can to understand it.

Note:

[1]       R’ Y.I. Chaver in Pitchei Sha’arim, Netiv HaSh’virah 1.

(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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One response to “The Breaking of the Vessels (Part 1)

  1. Pingback: The Other Worlds (1) « Ramchal

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