Let’s backtrack a bit. No one before Ari spoke of Adam Kadmon; in fact, it was one of his greatest innovations. Ezekiel the prophet saw “on the likeness of the throne … a likeness like the appearance of a man upon it above” (Ezekiel 1:26) which does seem to allude to it, but most declare that it refers to God’s presence or governance.
The Zohar refers to Adam, the first human, as Adam Kadma (“original man”), which while related to the term Adam Kadmon, is nonetheless not identical with it, and the Zohar simply does nothing to expand on the theme whatsoever there (3, 279b). But the Tikkunei Zohar does speak of an Adam Kadmon (p. 42a), a first Adam; but then it speaks of a second, and a third Adam as well. Still and all, it’s fairly clear in context there (as the commentators point out) that it’s referring to Adam the man himself and his position in the various worlds.
Yet elsewhere the Tikkunei Zohar does indeed cite an Adam Kadmon that seems to be exactly what Ari was referring to (p. 120a). It’s said there to refer to Keter, the highest Sephira, but the verse “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’” (Genesis 1:26) is cited there, the text speaks of the various “images” and “likenesses” that Adam Kadmon assumes which goes at the heart of Ramchal’s theme here, it speaks of Adam Kadmon’s “body-parts” the way Ari does, and it speaks of it in other “Adamic” terms. So this seems to be a clear precedent for Ari’s Adam Kadmon indeed [1].
Note:
[1] Also see Sefer Bahir 82, 172 for accounts of man’s body-parts as refection’s of the Divine form
(c) 2011 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
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