Monthly Archives: July 2014

The next point is that not only are aspects of Attik conjoined and co-equal side-by-side, as we saw just above in relation to MaH and Ban as “male” and “female” — they’re conjoined “fore” and “aft” as well.

The “fore” aspect is termed Attik’s “face” while its “aft” is termed the face’s “back”.  At bottom, Attik’s “aft” is utterly subsumed to its “fore” and Attik is a thorough unity in all dimensions. There is some seeming aspect of an “aft”, technically speaking, but that turns out not to be a true “aft” so much as a relative and inconsequential one. Here’s how that’s worded in Petach 76.

The phenomenon of the “back (of the ‘head’, as opposed to its ‘face’ or ‘front’)”, which is defined as being symbolic of the instance where the lights are darkened and don’t irradiate [1](as opposed to the “face”, which is symbolic of the instance in which lights irradiate fully — as if being projected outward “full-face”), isn’t found in Attik. For, instead, Attik manifests a full “face” or “front” on each side.

Its aspect of a “back”,suchasitis, is subsumed under the aspect of the “face” side there that governs. It’s just that there’s a “face” when it comes to the MaH there and a “face” when it comes to the BaN there, but the BaN’s “face” is considered MaH’s “back” relatively speaking, while it’s really not a “back” at all [2].

Note:

[1]       See Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 42.

[2]       See Klallei Chochmat HaEmet 46, “v’al yikshe”.

(c) 2014 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.

Petach 75 relates that like the other Partzufim beneath it, the Partzuf of Attik is likewise comprised of a MaH and a BaN, which are its “male” and “female” aspects. But  unlike the lower instances of MaH and BaN, they, i.e., those of Attik, literally function as a single entity and as one body, such that it is impossible to assign either a separate and independent place, and to call one “right” and the other “left”. Rather, they’re literally joined together as a single entity that‘s comprised of a single body [1].

What that means to say, in short, is that unlike the “male” and “female” of the lower Partzufim (i.e., Erich Anpin, Abba and Imma, etc.), the “male” and “female” aspects of Attik are of the order spoken of in the verse that reads, “male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27), which alludes to the fact that Adam/Eve was originally a hermaphrodite (Breishit Rabbah 8:1) — male and female at one at the same time.

The point here is that that state was the prototype and it remains the ideal, so the closer to the Source a Partzuf is the more this holds true. As such, Attik very closely embodies this while the other Partzufim only do so to varying degrees, as we’ll see.

Note:

[1]       Also see Klallot HaIlan 3:1, 3-4 and Klallei Chochmat HaEmes 46.

(c) 2014 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.

Ramchal makes the point elsewhere that the various arcane phenomena that came about before the world of Atzilut — which are the world of Adam Kadmon and everything connected with it — are all relevant to the World to Come, which will manifest itself after the world as we know it will no longer exist. That’s to say that they’re all quite literally unearthly and Divine.

In fact, so utterly unearthly are those higher worlds that they don’t even touch upon the Afterworld, which is a product of reward and punishment and is thus relevant to this world (while obviously functioning on a different plane). The utterly transcendent World to Come on the other hand is beyond the world of Atzilut and our spiritual efforts in this world that determine reward and punishment.

But he then states that there’s nonetheless a point that acts as a bridge between the otherworldly Adam Kadmon and the more-worldly Atzilut, which is Partzuf Attik [1].

That’s to say that Attik straddles the utterly transcendent and the more mundane; and as such, it serves as a bridge that allows for the creation of the more mundane out of the transcendent, and it’s conversely the one that one would have to cross to go from the more-mundane to the utterly transcendent [2].

Ramchal will now return to the specifics of Attik.

Notes:

[1]       Klallei Milchamot Moshe 5.

[2]       Also see Adir Bamarom p. 390 where Attik is depicted as being an essential element of the Tikkun process and likewise allowing for a return to a more transcendent state.

(c) 2014 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.