The complex relationship between the three elements is expanded upon by the statement in Petach 28 that the line of Ein Sof which entered into the trace is sequestered within it on every level, and is said to govern it the way the soul governs the body (as Ramchal pointed out in his comments to Petach 27). But it also stands outside of the trace and encompasses it, and is said to incorporate its abilities and to observe it from every angle and to thus govern it from within and without.
And Ramchal also offers there in explanation the statement that “The concealment of the line within the trace touches upon “the two sorts of Divine governance we’d discussed earlier: governance according to (the system of) good and evil, and governance according to (the system of) Divine sovereignty”. It implies that the mode of governance according to Divine sovereignty, represented by the line, “is concealed within the manifest mode of governance according to (the system of) good and evil”, represented by the trace. Thus we learn that God’s own “encompassing light is the cause of … the trace. That encompassing light represents the ultimate revelation while the … trace encompasses the root of man’s (Divine) service thanks to which we are able to attain the revelation (of God’s light), which is the (ultimate) reward.”
That implies, of course, that the ultimate revelation of God’s sovereignty will “win the day”, if you will, in the end and will supersede the world of relativity and wrongfulness that is our own, as we indicated.
But Ramchal then adds another element to all this in Petach 28: the fact that all of this — i.e., the line’s interactions with the trace– is (done) only in such a way that the line accommodates itself to the makeup and needs of the trace and everything connected with it.
We’ll touch on that next.
(c) 2011 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org
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