Before we get into the details of Adam Kadmon, though, we need to point out a missing step here. Ramchal first mentioned Adam Kadmon in Petach 12, as we’d mentioned. In short he said there that: The whole on-going process of governance … and the whole of creation (itself) encompass one single phenomenon … which is the mystic figure of a single “person” with all his body-parts … which is known as Adam Kadmon. And none of that contradicted what’s said in our section.
He then followed that with Petach 13 which, curiously enough, doesn’t seem to refer to Adam Kadmon itself (though it really does), but addresses the fact that the images that the prophets and high souls envisioned — including but not limited to Adam Kadmon — assumed various this-worldly shapes, including circles and straight lines, which actually refer to different modes of Divine governance.
We already offered some of the various details involved in this (in 3:4) where we pointed out how this refers to Adam Kadmon indeed, but it’s important for us now to fill in the gaps, so we can follow the flow of Ari’s depiction of creation downward from Ein Sof unto itself, to the Tzimtzum, trace, and line, and to the formulation of Adam Kadmon proper and onward.
So let’s simply quote Ari, mention where Ramchal offers the same in his own words, and then move on to Adam Kadmon itself.
(c) 2011 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org
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