Monthly Archives: January 2012

Adam Kadmon as Hester Panim and Ha’aret Panim

In explanation of all this Ramchal cites the two sorts of ways that God interacts with us: either openly, termed Ha’aret Panim, “(with) face aglow”; or covertly, termed Hester Panim, “(with a) hidden face” [1]. When God interacts via Ha’aret Panim His interactions are full and unabated, via Hester Panim they’re unfinished and incomplete. (Needless to say there’s a world to be said about this, but here is not the place.) These paradigms play themselves out in the human sphere in terms of the body (which is an example of imperfection and thus of Hester Panim) and the soul (an example of fullness and of Hester Panim) [2].

Now, these two modes also touch upon the Trace and the Line, where the former is an example of Hester Panim and the latter of Ha’aret Panim. Ramchal’s point here is that Adam Kadmon with its “face” and its “senses” is a representation of the Trace and the Line — Ha’aret Panim and Hester Panim — at work. It’s just that sometimes one mode dominates, and another time the other one does. The implication is that the prophet or exalted soul can not only envision the fact of Adam Kadmon, he can likewise know which is predominant.

Notes:

[1]       This is derived from Klallim Rishonim 8. See Da’at Tevunot 76- 81, 84 where Ramchal expounds upon God’s two interactions and related phenomenon.

[2]       Though this isn’t cited it here, Hester Panim is also analogous to receptacles while Ha’aret Panim is analogous to Lights.

(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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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”.

Adam Kadmon illustrated

Let’s return to Ramchal’s explanation of Adam Kadmon. We introduced it here, with remarks about its “inside” and “outside”. Then we went on to this, with insights into its inner radiance. Let’s now tie this inner radiance in with Adam Kadmon’s outer makeup as Ramchal explains it in Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at.

As Ramchal explains it [1], the Sephirot connected with Adam Kadmon “have an inner aspect — and an outer one which conceals it”. It’s just that, “some of the inner aspect pierce through the outer ones and come into view (to the prophets and great souls) in order to perform some visible function” [2]. “This represents the esoteric idea of the piercing through of (Adam Kadmon’s inner radiance through it’s) ‘ear’, ’nose’, and ‘mouth’”, as he’ll go on to explain.

Put simply, some of Adam Kadmon’s inner radiance pierced through the apertures of its “face” — its “eyes”, “ears”, “nose”, “mouth”, and even its “forehead”. And it did that in order to bring about whatever was needed to build all the intended phenomena , i.e., the worlds of Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah as well as mortal man, as well as bring about whatever was necessary to actualize what was intended for these phenomena (Petach 35).

But what’s the “solution” to all that as Ramchal understands it; i.e., what’s being indicated by this visual phenomenon? For that we’ll need to turn to his Klallim Rishonim.

Notes:

[1] Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 29.

[2] Parenthetically, why would there even need to be outer aspects? Because as Ramchal explains, “if there weren’t outer aspects, the inner aspects would function openly” and at full strength, which would be too overpowering; so “only a part of the inner aspect functions that way”, i.e., at full strength, thanks to that safeguard mechanism.

(c) 2012 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 own take on “worlds”

After listing and characterizing the four worlds (leaving out Adam Kadmon because it’s too sublime, as we said) Ramchal defined a world as an “amalgam of many objects in a certain place that are divided into many parts that are (nonetheless) related to each in various ways” [1]. All that is rather straightforward.

(We’re sorry but we already offered the next two paragraphs, but they really belong here). Elsewhere, though, Ramchal understands a world as a system consisting of “a benefactor (משפיע) and a recipient (מקבל)”. That suggests that each facet of reality — each world — must consist of an environment in which two polar opposite entities can form a mutually beneficial relationship and produce vital results [2], much like an electric circuit which, despite or most especially because of its polar opposite elements, manages to generate power.

Not only is it that so, but it’s likewise true that “every world exhibits various sorts of engarbments”, or instances in which one world steps into another one which thus surrounds it, and in which the inner one governs the outer one and acts as a soul to its body (as depicted above in R’ Vitale’s name); each world has its own individual “makeup” despite the broad strokes we’ll be painting them all with; each has its own “couplings” between the various parts; and each has its own “ascents and descents” and other movements. It’s thus clear that a world is a dynamic, unique realm with infinite numbers of interactions between its parts [3].

Notes:

[1] Derech Hashem 4:6:13

[2] We’re comparing the “benefactor” and “recipient” functions here to the reciprocally beneficial relationship of the “upper waters” of the heavens which are taken to be male and beneficent, and the “lower waters” of the earth which are taken to be female and receptive (see Breishit Rabbah 13:13; Zohar 1, 29b, etc.)

[3] Ramchal’s own comments to Petach 31.

(c) 2012 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”.

World Upon World: the Five Olamot

We’re going to need to do some serious backtracking here and explain the whole notion of “worlds”, of which Adam Kadmon is the first of the five primary ones, if we’re to understand what we’re about to come upon.

We’ve discussed the various “worlds” — Olamot–before and will do so again [1], but for now consider these fundamental remarks about them by R’ Ch. Vitale in Sha’arei Kiddusha (3:1).

He starts off with the notion that God “emanated five ‘worlds’”, with “each acting as a ‘soul’ to another” which we’ll explain below. The first is termed “Adam Kadmon which is mentioned in Tikkunei Zohar [2] and is referred to as the Tzachtzachot (“the [realm of the] lucid and luminous lights”) by the Gaonim [3]; the second is the world of Atzilut (of Emanation [see Numbers 11:17 and Ecclesiastes 2:10]); the third is the world of Briah (of Creation); the fourth is the world of Yetzirah (of Formation); and the fifth is the world of Assiyah (of Action)”[4].

R’ Vitale remarks that “these five worlds are termed (i.e., they embody) a single Tetragrammaton” (which has resonance with Ramchal’s remarks in Petach 31). And he indicates that “since, due to its sublimity and to the fact that it’s (only) represented by the ‘tip’ of the י (as cited above, and as opposed to an entire letter, which further underscores its sublimity),… we (usually) only speak of the (other) four” in our discussions.  And he declares that the greatest of them, Adam Kadmon, “incorporates all of them and is … (their) root”.

Here’s how the worlds act as “souls” to one another, as cited above. “The higher world is engarbed in the lower one like a soul (could be said to be engarbed or ensconced) in a body”. (A good analogy to this would be to the hand of the puppeteer that’s ensconced in the puppet while animating it.) He adds that “this (formation) is true throughout and in every instance — including this lowly world” which is also animated by a higher world, “and the lot of them thus serve as garments to the Ein Sof (which thus functions as) the Soul of all (other) souls”.

His final point, for our purposes, is the fact that “just as the Lights (i.e., Sephirot in this statement but also applicable to Partzufim or Olamot) develop in descent formation (from highest to lower, to lower yet, and to lowest) and are each an amalgam of the rest of the ten Sephirot, each individual Sephira is likewise divisible by thousands and hundreds-of-thousands (i.e., by an infinite number of component parts)”.

At bottom, then, we’re presented with five “worlds”, the first of which is often not discussed because it’s so sublime, though it acts as the animating force behind the lot of them (and is itself animated by Ein Sof), and which are all intimately interconnected by an infinite number of component parts and include this world which, while material, is rooted in sheer Godliness.

We’ll next see how Ramchal understands this.

Notes:

[1]       See note 48 to Section 3, and Petach 38 below and elsewhere below.

[2]       See Tikkunim 19, 70 as well as elsewhere there.

[3]       See the discussion in Pardes 11:1.

[4]       See Isaiah 43:7 for reference to the last three.

(c) 2012 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”.