Monthly Archives: April 2011

After discussing the descent of the Sephirot from Ein Sof at length, Sefer Bahir (171) then raises a question about ascending or “backward” turning lights, as if we’d just naturally expect to find such things.

“We (now) know about (lights that descend) from up above down below,” the disciples point out, “but we don’t (yet) know about (lights that ascend) from down below up above”.

The source of the notion is apparently the verse from Ezekiel’s vision that speaks of “the Chayot (as having) darted to and fro like flashes of lightning” (1:14) which Ramchal himself refers to in his comments to this Petach.

It’s pointed out next in Sefer Bahir that while the Sephirot would naturally be assumed to descend rapidly, backward-turning light Sephirot would be assumed to move more slowly.

“Ascending can’t be the same as descending” the disciples point out. For, “one could run while descending, but he can’t do that while ascending”.

This observation is apparently accepted outright since it isn’t responded to, assumedly because it’s a foregone conclusion. But as we’ll see, this point has a number of ethical and spiritual implications otherwise it wouldn’t make sense given that the Sephirot aren’t physical and thus needn’t be affected by traction or by having to resist the pull of gravity.

Sefer Bahir then finishes its explanation of the layout there in the name of R’ Yochanan (see 135) with the statement that “just as the Shechina is below, it’s likewise above” as it “surrounds everything”; after all, isn’t it written “The whole world is full of His Glory” (Isaiah 6:3)? And it offers that the Shechina is there “in order to support and sustain them”.

First off, the use of the term “Shechina” here is awkward-sounding to us and exceptional, so it either refers to the Ein Sof (and should thus be translated “Divine Presence”, as R’ Aryeh Kaplan does in his work), or it refers to Malchut, which it often does in Zohar and in many other places, and it speaks to the fact that Keter comes to be Malchut and vice versa as cited above.

We’ll expand upon the all-encompassing nature of Ein Sof later on in various contexts as we go along.

Let’s see what Ramak says about this all.

(c) 2011 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’d taken a long Pesach break so let’s review.

We’d begun to delve into the very esoteric Petach 16 which cites the fact that the Sephirot express two sorts of “forward” and “backward” light. Firstly, after the descent grade by grade from Keter to Malchut, Malchut then turns backward to become Keter, and so on in the same way until Keter becomes Malchut.

That’s to say, Sephira #1 (Keter) emanates from Starting Point A in the spherical Empty Space created by the Tzimtzum (to be explained later). Sephira #1 then irradiates downward through the spherical Empty Space (which is obviously no longer empty) to produce (spherical) Lights #2, 3, 4, (Chochma, Binah, Chessed, etc.) until it reaches End Point A of the spherical Empty Space, where it produces Light #10 (Malchut). Then the whole thing repeats itself in reverse.

Light # 10 (Malchut) starts ricocheting back from new Starting Point B (i.e., the old End Point A) in the spherical Empty Space so that Light #10 (Malchut) now functions as a new Light #1 (Keter) until it becomes a new Light #10 (Malchut) at new End Point B (i.e., the old Starting Point A). Then the whole process repeats itself.

Now, the often-cited source for this schema is Eitz Chaim 6:15, but as R’ Shalom Sharabi points out in his note there (in Shemesh), its actual source is Ramak’s Pardes Rimonim 15:4. But the latter in fact draws upon Sefer Bahir 171, so we’ll cite from the it and see how Ramak explains it, then we’ll delve into Ari’s analysis and wind up seeing what Ramchal says about it in his comments to this Petach and in his Biurim l’Sefer Otzrot Chaim (36).

(c) 2011 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’re taking a break now until after Pesach for our due diligence. After all, can anyone ever remove enough chometz, when you get right down to it?

Best wishes for a Chag Kosher v’Samaiyach!

YF

Let’s delve now into the very esoteric Petach 16 which cites the fact that the Sephirot express two sorts of “forward” and “backward” light. Firstly, after the descent grade by grade from Keter to Malchut, Malchut then turns backward to become Keter, and so on in the same way until Keter becomes Malchut.

That’s to say, Sephira #1 (Keter) emanates from Starting Point A in the spherical Empty Space created by the Tzimtzum (to be explained later). Sephira #1 then irradiates downward through the spherical Empty Space (which is obviously no longer empty) to produce (spherical) Lights #2, 3, 4, (Chochma, Binah, Chessed, etc.) until it reaches End Point A of the spherical Empty Space, where it produces Light #10 (Malchut). Then the whole thing repeats itself in reverse.

Light # 10 (Malchut) starts ricocheting back from new Starting Point B (i.e., the old End Point A) in the spherical Empty Space so that Light #10 (Malchut) now functions as a new Light #1 (Keter) until it becomes a new Light #10 (Malchut) at new End Point B (i.e., the old Starting Point A). Then the whole process repeats itself.

But there’s more.

(c) 2011 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 next inquiry is into what we are able to discuss about Sephirot and what not. “In short,” Ramchal writes in his comments to Petach 14, “we can’t ask why the Sephirot exist (as they do) and why they have this (particular) structure”, as that’s too close to the bone and is tantamount to peering behind the screen, which we simply can’t do.

Besides, he adds there, “there’s no better reason than the fact that this is (simply) the way it is”, period; “this is what’s needed, no less and no more … to achieve (God’s) intended goal of creation” [1].  For, that touches upon the makeup of the first Sephira, Keter, which we can’t delve into since it’s rooted in the Divine Will (Petach 15). That’s to say, it’s “attached to Ein Sof” (as Ramchal explains in his comments to there) which we haven’t any access to, and whose reasoning we couldn’t fathom anyway.

But we are to ask about and (try to) understand … the actions of the gradations and about how they function in the governance of the universe (Petach 15), which is to say, the Sephira of Chochma and then on. As Chochma is the point where “the thought (behind creation) divides things … in accordance with what has already been laid out” in Keter, and applies them to the governance of the universe (comment to Petach 15).

Ramchal then completes the equation by saying there that the very next Sephira, Binah, “is the ‘disclosure’ of Chochma” (i.e., it’s more accessible to us than Chochma), so we may inquire into it, “and (the Partzuf termed) Zeir (or Zeir Anpin, which is a conglomerate of the six Sephirot of Chessed, Gevurah, Tipheret, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod) and (the Partzuf termed) Nukveh (which is comprised of the Sephira of Malchut) which comprise the whole of (Divine) governance” may all be inquired into as well.

Notes:

[1]       Also see Ramchal’s comments to Petach 100 as well as his Peirush l’Arimat Yadi B’tzalutin, Ma’amar Harautin, and Iggerot Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 6.

(c) 2011 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 expands on the correspondence between the physical universe and the Sephira system that we referred to above in his Klallim Rishonim 1. He indicates there that “creation … itself in its entirety is a replica of all the lights (i.e., of the Sephira system) that produced it. As the various parts of the universe each corresponds to the lights in every way … each to each”.  That explains the idea of there being “613 lights which parallel the (248) limbs (and 365 organs) of the human form”, and the idea that they function in ways that “parallel the natural laws that govern humanity” and the natural world.

He also makes the point that “whatever is said of the Sephirot is (likewise) said of the universe”, it’s just that what’s said about the former “is said about them in their context” while what’s said about of the latter “is said about them in their context”. So, for example, it’s said that “Sephirot ‘speak’ to each other” or “that they ‘hug’” one another, and the like. “That’s not to say that the Sephirot are two specific entities that (actually) speak to each other” or hug of course, Ramchal underscores. The point is that at times “one of them leaves its own border and enters the border of the other” much the way people communicate by one person emitting words which enter another’s ears, and the like. And that illustrates the idea that they interact by assuming different relative positions, as when they’re “encased” within each other for example.

(c) 2011 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”.