Monthly Archives: December 2010

Ramchal peers deeply into the stars at a number of points, both esoterically (in Klach itself, Klallim Rishonim, and Adir Bamarom) and exoterically (in Derech Hashem, Da’at Tevunot, and Adir Bamarom).

We’re going to take a short break here ourselves to delve into Derech Hashem 2:7 and Klallim Rishonim 34 where he goes into all this at length and come back with a short synopsis.

(c) 2010 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”.

We’re also taught that “there is not a blade of grass” among all other natural things in the universe “that doesn’t have its mazal in the heavens to strike it and say to it ‘Grow!’” (Breishit Rabbah 9:6). And that every person “has a mazal that is his guardian from conception and birth” (Shabbat 53b) and oftentimes perceives things that he himself cannot (Meggilah 3a) [1].

The Zohar is quite emphatic about the rule of the constellations. It said that “the stars and constellations in the heavens were appointed to be rulers and governors over the entire world” (2, p. 171). Some of our sages argue, though, that our people aren’t influenced by the constellations while others say otherwise (Shabbat 156a) [2]. And some maintain that we can rise above the constellation by dint of our righteousness while others disagree (Shabbat 129b).

So we see how important constellations are in God’s governance of the world. Let’s explore what Ramchal says about them.

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Notes:

[1]       See Moreh Nevuchim 2:10 for a full discussion of the role that the constellations (and other celestial entities) play.

[2]       It’s stated in the Zohar, though, that prior to the granting of the Torah everyone was beholden to the constellations, whereas after the revelation God exempted those of us who study and observe the Torah from their rule, while the unlearned and heretics were not absolved from the constellations’ influence (3, p. 216b).

The Zohar discusses the constellations at length at a number of points including 1, pp. 188b-189a; 2, pp. 171a-172a, 188a, 232a; 3, pp. 251a-251b; and Zohar Chadash, Breishit p. 15a.

(c) 2010 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”.

The most extensive Talmudic statement about the constellations is found in Tractate Shabbat (p. 156a). Known as mazalot in Hebrew, the constellations are depicted there as having direct influence on one’s makeup and direction in life (for the good or the bad). There’s a discussion there, by the way, about whether the constellations themselves have that effect or the day of the week one is born in [1]. In any event, we’re told that someone born under the sign of the Sun, for example, will be radiant and self-sufficient, and will hold no secrets; that someone born under the sign of the Moon will suffer, will destroy and build, will build and destroy, will live off of others, and will have secrets; etc.

Elsewhere we’re told that certain months of the year influence us (see Ta’anit 29), and that what’s most especially affected by the constellations are one’s progeny, income, and life-span (see Moed Kattan 28a) [2].

But there’s a lot more.

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Notes:

[1]       The Tikkunei Zohar says it’s the hour of the day that matters (p. 139).

[2]       The Zohar contends that everything depends on the constellations (1, p. 198).

(c) 2010 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”.

Now let’s see how Ramchal depicts angels in his many of his works, Klach included.

At bottom he terms them “God’s emissaries who bring all of His commands to fruition” (Da’at Tevunot 160; also see Derech Hashem 1:5:10, 2:5:3-4), but there are other things we’d need to know about them for our purposes.

We learn that while the actions of some angels are set, those of others vary widely according to circumstances (Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 111) — either for good or bad. That’s not to imply that angels can do bad things on their own, as they’re too holy to have a yetzer harah (Ginzei Ramchal p. 35). So while there are indeed “angels of destruction” (i.e., malevolent angels) (Derech Hashem 3:1:6) who do harm in the world, still and all angels cannot rebel against or countervail God’s orders (Da’at Tevunot 36).

There are ten main species of angels (Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 110) with many sub-species (Ibid. 108), and all of them occupy four “camps” (Ibid. 111) [1].  The lot of them are under the command of various “Princes” (Ibid. 108-109) commonly termed Archangels. And we’re told that they “derive all of their satisfaction by what’s bestowed upon them by and their attachment to their source” in the upper worlds (Ginzei Ramchal p. 132).

That last point begins to explain their relationship to the Sephirot (which is our actual subject at hand, remember). At bottom, the angels are products of and subsidiary to the Sephirot. As Ramchal words it, “The illuminations (i.e., Sephirot)…. produce angels” (Ginzei Ramchal p. 131); and “the Sephirot decree, and the angels carry those decrees out” (Assarah Perakim 9:1; also see Derech Hashem 1:5:10, 2:5:3-4 and Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 125). He says much the same, though much more arcanely here in Klach [2].

What role do the constellations play in God’s governance then? We’ll soon see.

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Note:

[1]          We’ll need to present a Kabbalistic theme here which we’ll go into great detail later on in order to offer more about them here: the idea of there being various spiritual realms or “worlds” (also termed “camps” here). The Ari speaks of five of them, though we needn’t be concerned about the terminology at this point, which in descending order are termed Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah.

Ramchal offers that three of the ten main species of angels are centered in Briah, six in Yetzirah, and the other species is in Assiyah (Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 108). And thus while angels are commonly said to be located in Yetzirah, he maintains that while they’re centered there, they also touch upon Briah and Assiyah (Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 104, 109).

[2]       Angels are said to carry out the commands of the Shechina (Petachim 38 and 137; also see Da’at Tevunot 160), which represents the last of the Sephirot; and we’re told that they “derive their power from the illuminations”, i.e., the Sephirot (Petach 23).

For further discussion of angels in Ramchal’s works see Derech Hashem 2:5:3-4; 2:6:3; 3:1:6; 3:2:4, 7, 9; 4:4:1, 7, 11-12; and 4:8:5. Also see Da’at Tevunot 115, 118, 160; Ginzei Ramchal pp. 27, 33, 35, 41, 131-132, 153, 277; Derech Eitz Chaim; Messilat Yesharim Ch. 6; and Adir Bamarom pp. 2, 9, 111, 260.

(c) 2010 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”.

There are a few more points to be made about the angels’ makeup and their role in God’s governance, though, before we can go on to Ramchal’s remarks about them.

They haven’t physical bodies [1]; they often function as God’s “entourage” (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 8:11) aside from being His agents and consultants; there are “good” and “bad” ones (Shabbat 119b); and despite their functions they’re still and all subordinate to man (Sifre, Ha’azinu 306).

Now Ramchal’s view of them.

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Note:

[1]          Rambam depicts them as “having no body” but as still being “forms that are distinct from each other” despite the fact that they haven’t bodies, which would ordinarily distinguish them from each other (Yesodei HaTorah 2:3). It’s clear that one of the reasons why he made that point was to differentiate angels in their natural state from how they appear in Tanach in human form (Ibid. 2:4). Cordovero remarks, though, that they’re spiritual entities indeed, but they’re also comprised of “subtle, spiritual material (substance)”, which is to say that they’re physical “while in the physical realm, but spiritual in the spiritual realm” (Shiur Koma 16).

(c) 2010 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”.

Let’s explore the constellations and angels as agents of God’s governance as we said we would, and explore their relation to the Sephirot.

Angels were clearly understood early on as God’s agents who accompany Him and carry out His every wish, as when the prophets reported that they “saw God seated on His throne, with all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and left” (1 Kings 22:19), and witnessed “a river of fire flowing and emerging from before Him; (with) a thousand thousands (of angels) serving Him, and ten thousand ten thousands (of them) arising before Him” in His court (Daniel 7:10).

And we’re told that they were “the first of all created things, and were emanated from the splendor of His glorious Light” (Zohar Chadash, Breishit 9b), that they dwell in the seven Heavenly Halls (Zohar 1, pp. 11-45), and that God consults with them (Breishit Rabbah 8).

Let’s see now what Ramchal suggests about them.

(c) 2010 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”.

The best source for illustrations of basic Kabbalistic concepts is often the works of R’ Moshe Cordovero, and that’s certainly true when it comes to the Sephirot. So let’s draw now upon his depictions.

He describes the Sephirot as “the subtlest of things” (Pardes 4:7) that function as God’s “workman’s tools” (Pardes 4:1) if you will, and also filter His unbearably glorious presence, given that “the (various supernal and mundane) worlds couldn’t bear God’s abundance without the (mediation of the) Sephirot, so lofty is He” (Pardes 4:5). The ten of them are all interconnected, much “like sparks that emit from burning coal; for just as no one can imagine sparks existing without burning coals, as the two must exist at the same time, so too are the various Sephirot all interdependent” (Pardes 4:5).

And as to the question of how all the many changes in the Sephirot don’t indicate a change in God Himself who dwells in their midst, he compares it to the situation of “water running through variously colored vessels … For even though the water itself is colorless, nevertheless when it runs through the vessels the water assumes the colors of the vessel it’s running through”. That’s to say that God’s presence is of one sort and unchanging; the Sephirot that express His presence and will change in many ways, to be sure, but that says nothing of God’s unchanging presence — any apparent change there is “in the eye of the beholder rather than intrinsic to the water”, i.e., to God’s own presence (Pardes 4:4) [1].

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Note:

[1] Like R’ Cordovero, R’ Azriel (in his commentary to Sefer Yetzirah, p. 27b) and R’ Menahem Recanti (in Ṭa’amei HaMitzvot) considered the Sephirot to be utterly separate from God’s Being. But the anonymous author of Ma’arechet Elokut (p. 8b) took them to be parts of His Being. The Ari contends, however, that both views are correct, depending on circumstances (Eitz Chaim 1:3, 40:8, 47:1).

(c) 2010 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”.

The Sefer Yetzirah also likens the ten Sephirot to ten fingers (1:3), thus alluding to God’s “hand’s-on” approach to creation, in keeping with the statement that the “heavens (are) the work of Your fingers” (Psalms 8:4), and to His governance, as when an instance of His intervention is taken to be an act of “the finger of God” (Exodus 8:19) [1].

There are a number of explanations offered as to the significance of the term Sephira itself. Some say that it refers to their sapphire-like purity, clarity, and luster, as the term is a cognate of Saphir, the Hebrew for sapphire [2]; it’s a cognate of Mispar, number, in light of the abstract nature of both the Sephirot and numbers themselves [3]; it’s related to sippur, to declare, as in “the Heavens declare God’s Glory” (Psalms 19:2) [4]; and more [5].

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Notes:

[1]       Also see Sefer Bahir 138.

[2]       Ra’avad’s comments to Sefer Yetzirah 1:2, Zohar Chadash, Yitro, p. 41b.

[3]       (As opposed to the concrete nature of actually counted-out things) see Cordovero’s Pardes Rimmonim 1:1 and Gra’s Yahel Ohr (6d).

[4]       Sefer Bahir 125.

[5]       See Cordovero’s Shiur Komah 2 for other explanations.

(c) 2010 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”.

We’ll start with the Mishnayot of this section:

Petach 5

הספירות הם הארות שניתנו ליראות, מה שלא ניתן אור הפשוט א”ס ב”ה:

Sephirot are those illuminations that were allowed to be envisioned (prophetically), unlike God’s own simple light (and other lights that are more sublime than the Sephirot under discussion, which cannot be envisioned whatsoever).

Petach 6

כל ספירה היא מדה אחת מן המדות של א”ס ב”ה, אשר ברא בם את העולמות, ומנהג אותם. שברצותו שתהיינה נודעות, עשה שכל מדה תראה בסוד הארה אחת, שבראות אותה – מבינים המדה ההיא. ובראות תנועות ההארה ההיא – מבינים מה שנעשה בהנהגה במדה ההיא בזמן ההוא:

Each Sephira is an attribute of The Infinite that He used to create the (various esoteric and concrete) worlds and which He (now) uses to govern them.

Now, since He wanted them to be known of, He had each attribute appear as a single, mystical “illumination”. So by “envisioning” it we can understand the attribute itself, and by “envisioning” its movements we can understand what would be taking place in the governing process through that attribute at that time.

And we’ll add these essential points:

The Sefer Yetzirah is the first printed work to speak of the Sephirot. It speaks of  “ten Sephirot of ‘sheer nothingness’” referring to their utterly immaterial nature or, put another way, to “ten ineffable Sephirot” (1:2) [1].

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Notes:

[1]       The Sefer Yetzirah also speaks of close homonyms to Sephirot, “Sepher (book), S’phar (number), and Sippur (communication)” (1:1) which tell us something about their overall makeup.

For as Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan put it, “Like a book, each Sephira can record information. The Sephirot thus serve as a memory bank in the domain of the Divine. A permanent record of everything that has ever taken place in all of creation is thus made on the Sephirot…. The Sephirot (also) introduce an element of number and plurality into existence. The Creator, the Infinite Being, is the most absolute unity, and the concept of number does not apply to Him in any manner whatever…. It is only with the creation of the Sephirot that the concept of number comes into being. In this mode, ever event and action is measured and weighed by the Sephirot, and the appropriate response is conceived and calculated…. The Sephirot are (also) the means through which God communicates with His creation. They are also the means through which man communicates with God. If not for the Sephirot, God, the Infinite Being, would be absolutely unknowable and unreachable” (Sefer Yetzirah, Aryeh Kaplan, p. 21).

(c) 2010 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”.

Recall that Ramchal introduced the Sephirot here with the statement that “each Sephira is an attribute (or “capacity”) of The Infinite that He used to create the (various esoteric and concrete) worlds”. But he then added that they’re the mechanisms “which He (now) uses to govern them” (Petach 6). So while we’ll necessarily be spending a lot of time on the creation process, as Kabbalists do, we’ll also spend a fair amount of time on the “more recent past” if you will, since creation, as well as on the present and future as God continues His governance.

We’ll first need to see how others who preceded Ramchal depicted the Sephirot and how his depiction differs. And we’d need to explore the role that angels play in this, as it’s commonly assumed that they’re God’s agents of governance, as well as the role of the constellations.

(c) 2010 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”.