Ari introduces one other illuminating factor about the Aleph-Bet that we’d need to explore before going on to Ramchal’s treatment of it. He says in Sha’ar HaHakdamut (1) that as is well known, “there’s no ‘body’ or any ‘bodily function’ up above, God forbid” and that all the imagery and symbolism used to seemingly express the details of a body or a function of it don’t signify that they exist there, but they’re only meant to “assuage the ear” — i.e., to sound right and to make sense in context — “so that one might understand supernal and spiritual phenomena” as best as possible. As such, “permission has been granted to speak in metaphor and symbolism (that suggest bodily phenomena)… throughout the Zohar and the Torah itself”. After all, he goes on, isn’t reference made to God’s “seeing”, “hearing”, “smelling”, “speaking”, in the Torah? And aren’t we taught that we were created “in God’s image” which would all have us believe that there are physical phenomena and functions above? The truth of the matter, though, is that there are only “fine and utterly spiritual (i.e., abstract) Lights up above”, and that goes to explain the depiction of the Sephirot.
Then he offers the following there which goes to explain the use of the Aleph–Bet in Kabbalistic symbolism. “There’s another way to explain what lies up above metaphorically and symbolically, which is by means of the makeup and shape of the (Hebrew) letters”, as “each and every letter alludes to a supernal Light as does its form”. We’re never to forget, though, that there “aren’t any actual ‘letters’, ‘points’ (etc.) up above” and that they’re also only used to “assuage the ear”.
The point of the matter is that nothing in the upper realm is physical and thus it’s all largely inexplicable to us. But there are a couple of things that we can fall back upon to understand it: our own situation, given that we were somehow or another created in God’s image, and can thus understand something about Him and His realm in light of that; and the Aleph–Bet, given that “the heavens were made through the word of God” (Psalms 33:6), and so we can understand this world and the forces that went into its creation and maintenance by examining the elements of God’s “word”, the letters.
(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”.