Monthly Archives: September 2011

and I need to break off from Klach for the Yom Tov season. I suggest Ramchal’s Ma’amar HaChochma for RH to keep you going.

Best wishes for a goot g’bentcht yoor to all.

Now on to the next step in the creation process: the descent of the “line” (Kav). As Ari words it, “After the aforementioned Tzimtzum … a single straight line extended from the light of the Ein Sof … from above to below, descending and developing into that ‘void’” [1]. That’s to say that a lone projectile was made to extend out of God’s Being that originated in Him but lengthened “downward” all the way into our reality. The “line” is clearly an indication of a direct connection between God and creation, but what implications are we’re to draw from it?

Ramchal makes the point in Petachim 27-28 that this “line” speaks to God’s interactions with and His governance of the cosmos, as we’ll see.

He tells us there that everything that was to exist in the world has its roots in the aforementioned trace … and that the Infinite … interacts with those phenomena … (Petach 27) by means of the line of (i.e., that emanates from) Ein Sof which entered into the “emptiness” that contains the trace, is sequestered within it on every level, and is said to govern it from within. But the Infinite also stands outside of the trace and encompasses it, and is said to incorporate all of its abilities and to observe it from every angle and to thus govern it from without (Petach 28).

In other words, Ramchal understands the “line” as a sort of life-line, if you will — an umbilical cord — between ourselves and our Source who, while lying outside of the world nonetheless communes with it, albeit minimally, by means of a thin line rather than a shaft, ribbon, or full column of light.

Note:

[1]       From The Tree of Life pp. 14-15 (with slight changes).

(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 trace functions as the source of the finite “place” of all of existent phenomena, given that it allows them what they need to experience physical existence, which infinitude, i.e., God’s own presence alone cannot (Petach 26). That’s to say that the environment we need to exist — with time, space, physicality, quantity, quality, as well as more physical phenomena like sunlight, oxygen and the like — could not exist in the stark presence of God’s own being, before which everything is undone. There needed to be a more mortal- and even angel-and-the-like friendly environment. The trace is what provided for that; for while the Tzimtzum allowed for the concealment of God’s overarching and unbearable presence, there needed to be another environment in its place. And the trace allowed for just that.

As Ramchal goes on to say, it’s the “trace” itself which everything that was to exist in the world has its roots in it. He then underscores the fact that the trace isn’t an independent agent but rather one of God’s tools (like the Sephirot), and that He governs (i.e., controls) it the way a soul governs a body, with all the implications involved in that (Petach 27).

An obvious question at this point is, what role do the Sephirot play in the trace? Simply put, each Sephira is a part of the trace (Petach 29).

(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 moves on from the Tzimtzum to explain the next few steps in the creation process [1]. While Ari seems to indicate that an utter void was left behind when God’s presence was withdrawn in the course of the Tzimtzum process, Ramchal (and others) explained that what’s said to be a trace or remnant of the original light, i.e., of God’s presence, remained behind there (Petach 26).

It’s “said to be” a remnant of God’s presence, but it’s not exactly that, as Ramchal explains in his comments there. Since “a ‘trace’ is a remnant of something that’s of the same order (as itself) only greater….  But, the (original) light that was removed” was of a whole other order: it is an element of God Himself as He is apart from creation, while the trace is an aspect of Him that’s already connected to creation, “thus they’re not in the same order”. But saying it’s a trace is accurate-enough for our purposes since it enables us to understand the whole notion, so we use it so as “to soothe the ear (i.e., to make some sort of sense) so that a person will be able to understand lofty and spiritual things” (Eitz Chaim p. 14c). The point to be made, though, is that while the most arcane and utterly transcendent aspects of the Source cannot be detected in the space left after the Tzimtzum, a bit of It can –a remnant of it, which, while of a whole other order is still and all a sign of It.

Now, not all Kabbalists spoke of this trace in their scheme of things; in fact Ari himself didn’t use the term at this stage of his depiction, though he did cite the notion of spiritual phenomena leaving remnants of themselves behind after they went elsewhere [2]. The notion of the Reshimu has been attributed to the writings of R’ Yoseph Ibn Tabul (late 16^th and early 17^th centuries) [3].

Notes:

[1]       Understand that none of this happened in space and time, which hadn’t yet been created, so the idea of the “next few steps” isn’t to be taken literally in regard to the process itself so much as in Ramchal’s presentation of it.

[2]       See Eitz Chaim 6:5 and 19:1, for example.

[3]       See his Sefer HaDerushim 1; but also see his Peirush Iddrah Rabbah p. 136 where he omits the Reshimu.

(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”.

This is just a quick note about one matter. One can’t help but notice that this Petach has two segments. The first reads It was the Tzimtzum that enabled God’s light and radiance to be envisioned. For before it occurred — and even now in the case of those levels which the Tzimtzum doesn’t affect — they couldn’t be envisioned or grasped at all. This segment fits in well with the great majority of the other Petachim in that it’s Mishna-like in its pithiness and conclusiveness.

The second segment, which reads, now, while the light that can now be envisioned is termed “emanated light” since it presents as a newly created light, in fact it’s only a specific aspect of the original light whose ability was diminished as a consequence of the mystical process of Tzimtzum is not that sort. It’s more Gemorrah-like in that it’s explicative, and only comes to clarify a statement in Eitz Chaim that might mislead, as we indicated above.

The truth is that the second segment would have been better placed in Ramchal’s comments which themselves serve as a sort of Gemorrah to the Mishnaic Petach they address, and his setting it here in the body of the Petach is rather out-of-sorts and distracts from the intended tight nature of the Petachim.

Now, this is especially disturbing on the part of someone who is taken to be a major stylist and artist. But in fact Ramchal should not be considered a great stylist. There are many instances of misplacement in Klach — as well as in a great many of Ramchal’s works. Truth be told, much of Klach could and should have been edited; it’s terrible wordiness and repetitiveness has turned many potential readers away from a stunning original work of Kabbalistic analysis and explication.

We now know that Ramchal had an editor for his most successful work, Messilat Yesharim (“The Path of the Just”), and that the first edition was too wordy and repetitive in fact. Students of Ramchal’s know that most of his other works are also in need of editing (Da’at Tevunot for example tends to ramble; Adir Bamarom is often distracting; etc.). That doesn’t deny the brilliance, piety, or inspiration of his entire corpus, but it is an issue that isn’t often addressed (perhaps because of the over-all success of other succinct and terse works including Derech Hashem, the various Klallim, etc., aside from the better-known second edition of Messilat Yesharim).

(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 concludes his discussion of the Tzimtzum with this: Now, while the light that can now be envisioned thanks to the Tzimtzum is termed “emanated light” by Ari [1] and others since it presents itself as a newly created light, that’s still and all not to be taken literally. In fact it’s only a specific aspect of the original light (i.e., of God’s full presence) whose ability was diminished or hidden away as a consequence of the mystical process of Tzimtzum (Petach 25). Or, as Ramchal explains in his own comments here, what appears is “Ein Sof’s own light” to be sure, “whose ability has (nonetheless) been diminished and limited by the Tzimtzum process”.

Note:

[1]       See Eitz Chaim 1:3. Ramchal discusses this in his comments to Petach 5 above, as well as in Klallei Ma’amar HaChochma, and in Assarah Orot 8.

(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”.

But as to the source of rah, Ramchal tells us that it’s the “trace” (the Reshimu) of the original light (Petach 26) — the remnant of Godliness left behind despite the Tzimtzum process as we’ll see — which is “the source of all imperfect lower phenomena” (Klallim Rishonim 5) [1]. Rah is also rooted in the phenomenon known as the existence of the “Primordial Kings” and of their “shattering” which produced “the Sephirot of the Other Side” (Klallim Rishonim 11) — perhaps best described as a very purposeful rupture in the creation process (to be explained later on in this work). And it’s depicted as being a product of Malchut of the world of Assiyah (Klallim Rishonim 29) — i.e., of the lowest aspect of the lowest realm, as one would expect.

He characterizes this trace as a mere shadow of God’s actual and full presence (Da’at Tevunot 48), and thus portrays rah as a sort of perceived lack or diminution of God’s presence, again making the point indicated above that rah isn’t a separate, intrinsic phenomenon. In fact he reiterates that point in his comments to Petach 27, where he says that, “there is no rah in God’s presence — rah only exists in the absence of His perfection; (and in fact,) rah will cease to exist once His perfection is revealed” [2].

And Ramchal lays out the distinctions between the holy and the unholy Sephirot and realms in the Zohar addressed above his comments to Petach 30. There are three differences between them as he lays them out: “The first … is that while the Sephirot are (the expression of) the (full) will of God, … the Other Side is merely a single (specific) creation which the Lord made (ad hoc, if you will) because He wanted it (for a particular and isolated end) ….Thus rah is subordinate to the One Lord and dependent upon Him, and is merely charged with carrying out His order….The second difference, which derives from the first, is that the power (i.e., actions, consequences, etc.) of the Sephirot was exactly calculated to function in accordance with God’s will…. It appears that the Other Side can challenge them and disallow them to function, but (in truth), if Ein Sof had wanted to, He could have increased the power of the Sephirot as much as He would have wanted to and the Other Side would (thus) not have the slightest ability to challenge the Side of Holiness. For (in truth) the Other Side is truly limited in scope compared to the power of the Sephirot…. And the third difference is that the source of goodness was primordial and did not have to be brought into being…, while the source of the Other Side was an innovation”.

Notes:

[1]       See Da’at Tevunot 48.

[2]       See Adir Bamarom 1, pp. 397, 404-405, 457-458; Da’at Tevunot 148.

From Ramchal’s comments to Petach 30: “Initially all was perfect; it was only afterwards that imperfection emerged. Its existence is due to the underlying power of Din (Judgment), which was only revealed by means of the Tzimtzum. It brought about concealment, void and emptiness, and every sort of imperfection that could possibly exist”.

(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 uses the same bilateral depiction for the source of rah, which is once again a product of the Tzimtzum, our subject at hand. On the one hand, rah is rooted in and a means of accomplishing God’s ultimate end, while on the other it’s rooted in a division in the upper realms.

As he says in Adir Bamarom (p. 393), God wants to “express utter beneficence”, and the greatest proof of that is the fact “even rah itself is to be turned back to goodness”. That’s to say that rah is not intrinsic to the world, as some posit, but rather a God-created phenomenon that serves as a tool to facilitate God’s goal of utter beneficence [1].

But there’s the other side of the story, too, as we’ll see.

Note:

[1]       Also see Ma’amar Haraotav (as found in Ginzei Ramchal p. 247) and Adir Bamarom pp. 393, 397.

(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’s depictions of rah, which is termed the yetzer harah (“the inclination to do wrong”) when it touches on our personal relationship to it, speaks to its two aspects: as the embodiment of “the other side”, i.e., the utter and unredeemable opposite of Godliness; and, contrarily, as the laudable and redeemable mechanism that will allow for God’s Yichud to be seen and for everything … to return to its ultimate perfection.

We find clear analogies to that bilateral depiction of it in the non-Kabbalistic tradition which speaks of rah as “the greatest thief of all” (Pesichta Rabbati 32b), and as the only phenomenon that God Himself deems evil (Kiddushin 30b) and wishes He hadn’t created (Breishit Rabbah, Breishit 27:4), on the one hand; and as the one thing that enables humankind and society to grow and flourish in this world (Breishit Rabbah, Breishit 9:7) on the other, based on its worldly allurements.

The Zohar is also of two minds when it comes to rah. It discusses its other-sideness a number of times, as when it speaks of the ten “crowns” of holiness (i.e., the ten holy Sephirot) as opposed to the ten “crowns of uncleanness” ( see 3, p. 41b, 70a) which are depicted as ten “monsters” that lurk in ten rivers (see 2, pp. 34a-35b), and when it refers to the configuration of “Worthless Man” as opposed to “Primordial Man” or Adam Kadmon (see 2, pp. 242b-244b). But it also speaks of rah as a servant acceding to its master’s orders so as to fulfill the latter’s agenda (see 1, pp. 146b-147a; 2, 34a; 3, p. 172b) [1].

Let’s explore how Ramchal explains the source of rah.

Note:

[1] See Moreh Nevuchim 3:12 for Rambam’s rationalist view of rah.

(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”.

As we’d cited before, Ramchal wrote in Petach 30 that rooted in the Tzimtzum is the principle that everything in the created world would follow a natural course until the end. We’d explained it otherwise above, but as he himself went on to say, that (also) implies that flaws would exist in the course of things but that in the end — when God’s Yichud will be seen for what it is — everything would return to its ultimate perfection.

This raises the question, though, of the place, makeup, and source of these “flaws”, which is to say of wrong, evil, and injustice, which we’ll now turn to.

The ultimate question is how is how it is that God, who’s termed the epitome of goodness and beneficence (הטוב והמיטב), could have allowed for let alone have created what’s termed rah (which is usually translated “evil”, but since that restricts the phenomenon to its most extreme example, we prefer to explicate it as referring it to all instances of wrongdoing, injustice, and evil, which is to say — to all instances of un-Godliness).

As Ramchal also offers in this Petach, God saw to it that as a consequence of the Tzimtzum there would be a realm of existence that would be based on (i.e., that the world would function according to the principle of) the mystical implications of right and wrong, and of thesis and antithesis. That’s to say that this universe would be characterized by the existence of two polar-opposite systems: one in which the Sephirot would … bestow goodness, and a second one that would allow for flaws (i.e., wrong, evil, and injustice) which would be termed “the other (i.e., opposite) side” or the root of rah. He then assures us, to be sure, that God’s ultimate goal is that the power to bestow goodness would hold sway, that each flaw would return to a state of repair, and that God’s actual Yichud would become realized (Petach 30) in the end, but he doesn’t explain in the body of this Petach the makeup and source of rah. So we’ll turn to his own comments in this Petach for some of that as well as statements he made elsewhere.

Beforehand, though, let’s see how the Zohar characterizes rah.

(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”.