“Note the significant difference between the (degree of) radiance visible on the (surface of Adam Kadmon’s) face”, Ramchal goes on to say, “as opposed to what passes out through the apertures”. That difference helps to explain why we can’t grasp everything that God communicates with us. It’s characterized by the fact that “the radiance is dimmed” and less lustrous than we would need it to be, given that “it has to pass through the face itself” which dims it. But, why is that so? Because the thrust “of (God’s) governance that’s revealed to us is only the part of it that’s revealed after the Line has been engarbed in the Trace”. As a consequence of that, whatever else “the Line does … is unknown to us”.
That’s to say that we only get a part of the message — a dimmed and muted version of it at that — because the full message, which is connected to the Line or God’s presence, has been covered-over by all the noise and mayhem of the Trace element.
(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org
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Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).
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