Our first concern when it comes to understanding what happened between the Shevira process (the “Breaking of the Vessels”) and the Tikkun (“repair”) that followed it is this: What actually came about as a result of the Shevira [1]?
And so we learn that it was the ability to govern, i.e., to facilitate constructive actions and to contribute to a set positive goal, that was taken away from the vessels when they were broken in the course of the Shevira. And so only their rah elements prevailed, which produced a lop-sided form [2].
They also didn’t function as the mystical configuration of a perfect form then. Instead, they functioned as various imperfect phenomena that were unfit to do things fully and positively. They weren’t destroyed, Ramchal underscores in his comments here, since they had to function until the Tikkun process would take place.
It was their source i.e., the name AV, that kept them that way so that they wouldn’t be undone altogether until a new emanation, i.e., the name MaH, came about to perfect them and give them a fully realized form and function [3] which is the Partzuf configuration (Petach 54).
Notes:
[1] Also see Klallim Rishonim 18, Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 36, and Klallei Chochmat HaEmet 18, 24 (at end).
[2] See our discussion of this in Section Eight (Petach 37 specifically).
[3] “This touches upon the esoteric notion of the selection and purification process, in the course of which the name MaH sifts out and gathers unto itself parts of BaN, as will be discussed later” Ramchal notes in his comments.
(c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org
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