Monthly Archives: February 2012

Let’s explain the worlds of Akudim, and their associated terms the worlds of Nikkudim and of Verudim.

As Ar”i indicates, “it is explained by the scriptural passage in which Jacob says, ‘I saw in a dream that the rams who mounted the sheep were banded (Akudim), dotted (Nikkudim), and spotted (Verudim)’ (Genesis 31:10)….  They begin with Akudim because this is the light that came out of the mouth of Adam Kadmon, through which the vessels (to be discussed below) began to be revealed as ten internal and surrounding lights, bound together and connected within a single vessel. That is the reason why it is called Akudim, using the expression from the verse ‘… he bound (yakod) Isaac’ (Genesis 22:9)…. The higher lights of the ‘ear’ and ‘nose’ are not mentioned in this passage because the existence of vessels was not revealed in them” [1]. They’re termed Akudim because they’re included in one vessel which thus joins them all together [2].

Thus, in this first stage, the Sephirot were not yet divisible into separate lights contained in ten vessels; rather, they were experienced as a single vessel comprised of ten Sephira-elements.

The next stage is where the expansion of the lights began, and where from the one vessel that included all ten, the ten Sephirot became separate and distinguishable “dots”. This is what is called “the world of Nikkudim.” It can be said to be a sort of transition stage to the world of the Verudim. The latter is where every sephira becomes comprised of ten of its own, which was repeated over and over again.  It is the world of Atzilut, where we find the root of all multiplicity.

Notes:

[1]       From The Tree of Life pp. 232-233 (with slight changes).

[2]       See Eitz Chaim, Sha’ar ha’Akudim 3.

(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.

Along with the aforementioned lights of AV and SaG come the lights of MaH and BaN from Adam Kadmon’s “navel” and below. They comprise the essence of the world right after and below Adam Kadmon, the world of Atzilut, which is vitally important for the fulfilling of God’s plans. As Ramchal states in his comments to Petach 33, “The intention from the very outset was to bring into being the root of the likeness of man”. This root is Atzilut, which is comprised of MaH and BaN. BaN emits from Adam Kadmon’s “eyes” while MaH emits from its “forehead” [1].

All of these together comprise what’s referred to as The Lights of Nikkudim, which Ramchal refers to as “the gist of the makeup of Adam Kadmon” [2].

Notes:

[1]       This is all explained at great length in Eitz HaChaim’s discussions of the Sh’virat HaKeilim (“The Breaking of the Vessels”) and the Tikkun (“The[ir] Repairing”) as well as in Ramchal’s discussions in Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 30-34, and in Klallot HaIlan1-2. Also see Ramchal’s comments to Petach 34.

[2]       Iggerot Pitchei v’Da’at 8.

(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).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.

Here, then, is how Adam Kadmon’s inner light manages in fact to make contact with its encompassing light, bit by bit. After reporting that AV emits its inner light from its “hair”, and SaG emits its from its “ears” and below, Ramchal offers the following:

“The upper lights emit from the ‘ears’ — ten from its right side and ten from its left … down to the ‘chin’. The middle lights emit from the ‘nose’ — ten from its right side and ten from its left … down to the ‘chest’. The lower lights emit from the ‘mouth’”, then some more lights emit from “both ‘ears’ and both ‘nostrils’ … and they incorporate into the two ‘jaws’ … down to the ‘navel’” (Klallot HaIlan 1:3).

Suffice it to say that there are alternately complex and simple explanations for each phenomenon, but at bottom it comes to the fact that this is what a prophet or special soul would envision — these are simply the facts in the heavens.

(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”.

We’d already cited the beginning of the complex laying-out of Adam Kadmon’s various esoteric elements. What it’s all meant to illustrate is the fact that while Adam Kadmon’s “inner light and encompassing light are initially far from one another” they nonetheless “steadily come closer together, little by little”, as Ramchal points out in his comments to Petach 33. And as we’ll find, they all do what they do in order to allow for the declension of the esoteric worlds — from Adam Kadmon to Atzilut to Briah to Yetzirah to Assiyah, and eventually down to our own material world.

We’ll see how Ramchal sets this up and explains it reasoning as well as its relation to ourselves in the next few entries.

(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”.

Ramchal takes another short excursion, this time in his comments to Petach 33, and offers this definition of and the difference between Chochma and Binah which are both elements of the thinking process (as well as elemental components of creation and reality, of course).

The term Chochma (literally, “wisdom”), he explains, represents “how things are arranged in the depth of the mind” and it’s in its nature “to be hidden and concealed”. The Binah aspect of the mind (literally, “understanding”), he says, “reveals the hidden mysteries of Chochma”. That’s to say that Chochma represents the deep and passive unconscious, while Binah represents the rational and actively conscious mind. Others have spoken in like terms while yet others have presented them otherwise.

See Zohar 3, p. 235b and elsewhere where Chochma is broken down into two terms: Koch Ma, meaning, “the potentiality of whatever (exists)”, including one’s thoughts, suggesting that it’s in fact one’s latent, unconscious thoughts. For Binah see Chagiga 14a which speaks of it as granting one the ability to “understand one thing from another” — to consciously expand upon the initial intuitive notion and follow its course. The two are discussed at great length, along with Da’at, in Chabad literature: see especially Tanya 1:3 and Iggeret HaKodesh 5.

(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”.

Let’s take a couple of small excursions here before we go on. Our first:

Why is BaN (representing 2+50) not termed “NaB” (representing 50+2), so that like AV (representing 70+2), SaG (representing 60+3), and MaH (representing 40+5), its ten’s place numeral would come before its one’s place numeral? The short answer is because if it were termed NaB (representing 50+2) then it wouldn’t equal 9 in “the small number gematria” value.

The “small number gematria value” comes down to this: were I to add 2+4+6 I’d of course arrive at 12. If I were to add the 1 and 2 of the figure 12 I’d arrived at just now, I’d then arrive at the number 3, which is the “small number gematria” value of the original 2+4+6 (i.e., 2+4+6=12=3).

So, just as AV’s 72 is 7+2=9, SaG’s 63 is 6+3=9, and MaH’s 45 is 4+5=9 — BaN’s 52 is 2+700=9 in “small number gematria value” (given that the final letter Nun is worth 700), whereas it would be worth only 7 (5+2) if it read NaB (Midrash Peliah 163).

Why would they need to each be worth 9? According to that same source, that’s because that represents the nine major components of each Partzuf which is then completed by its tenth — it’s Malchut; or because the word for truth (emet) also has the “the small number gematria” value of 9 (1+40+400=9).

We’re not told there why either factor is important per se, but we’d surmise that the point is that each of the names, AV, SaG, etc. should have the same “valence” or potency. The other point might be that NaB is also an abbreviation of Nishmato B’Eden (so-and-so, “whose soul is Heaven”; i.e., R.I.P.) or Nirah B’eini (“it appears to me” i.e., “in my humble opinion”), which would then cause reading problems in various contexts.

(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”.

Given the correlation of parts we spoke of before, we can now understand Ramchal’s statement in Petach 33 (along with our extrapolations from it) that AV corresponds to the level of Chochma of Adam Kadmon; SaG corresponds to the level of Binah there; and MaH and BaN correspond to the levels of Zeir Anpin and Nukveh respectively.

Let’s see how Ramchal expands upon all this (and what we’d spoken of above) in Sefer HaIlan (1:3-4) [1].

“The first (world) is Adam Kadmon. Four ‘senses’ emit from its ‘face’: that of ‘seeing’, of ‘hearing’, of ‘smell’, and of ‘speech’. The four letters of the Tetragrammaton (which) are (also elements of) four expanded forms (known as) AV, SaG, MaH, and BaN as well as the (configurations of the) tropes, vowels, ‘crowns’, and letters, are all interconnected (and are all represnted in Adam Kadmon).

“AV is located in (Adam Kadmon’s) ‘cranium’. Its elements are hidden, but it emits them from the ‘hair’ on (Adam Kadmon’s) ‘head’.

“SaG emits from (its) ‘ears’ and below. (SaG’s) tropes (i.e., its own AV) is divided into three aspects: upper, middle, and lower. Its upper aspect is (centered in) the ‘ears’, its middle aspect is (centered in) the ‘nose’, and its lower aspect is (centered in) the ‘mouth’” [2].

It gets more complex after that, as we’ll see.

Notes:

[1]     This is also expanded on in at great length in Pitchei Chochma V’Da’at 30-34 as well as in the body of Ramchal’s comments to Klach.

[2]     See Otzrot Chaim TNTA 1.

(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”.

We’ll find that one of the most important principles to set in mind is the lateral correlation between the various phenomena in the Kabbalistic system, and their hierarchal correlation. It might help to see it in terms of the lateral correlation between the various ranks in the armed services (i.e., Navy’s Admiral = Army’s General = Air Force’s Air Marshall) as opposed to their hierarchal correlation (i.e., from Navy’s Seaman to Leading Seaman to Petty Officer to Warrant Officer to Midshipman all the way up to Admiral = Army’s Private to Corporal to Sergeant to Sergeant Major to Officer Cadet all the way up to Admiral = Air Force’s Aircraftsman to Corporal to Sergeant to Warrant Officer to Officer Cadet all the way up to Air Marshall).

Thus, laterally we have the (Olamot’s) Worlds’ Adam Kadmon= the Partzufim’s Erich Anpin­ = the Sephirot’s Keter = the tip of the Yod of the Tetragrammaton = the soul’s Yechida. And hierarchically we have the Worlds’ Assiyah to Yetzirah to Briah to Atzilut all the way to Adam Kadmon; the Partzufim’s Nukveh to Zeir Anpin to Imma to Abba all the way to Erich Anpin, the Sephirot’s Malchut to Yesod to Hod to Netzach to Tipheret to Gevurah to Chessed to Binah to Chochma all the way to Keter; the Tetragrammaton’s lower Heh to Vav to upper Heh to Yod all the way to the tip of Yod, or from BaN to MaH to SaG to AV; and the soul’s Nephesh to Ruach to Neshama to Chaya all the way to Yechida.

Ramchal and we will be culling from this series of correlations throughout the rest of the book.

(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”.

Ramchal presents us with a couple of vital over-arching remarks in his comments to Petach 33, one of which touches upon all the Partzufim, Sephirot, and Olamot, which is to say, upon all of reality itself, and another which explains a vital detail about Adam Kadmon in its entirety.

As to the former, he says that “the truth is that all the levels discussed in Kabbalah, from the beginning of Adam Kadmon to the end of all of Assiyah (the lowest world) are bound up with each other and develop from each other. The (major) difference between them is that higher levels are more concealed than the ones lower ones because things move from a state of concealment to one of revelation, but (the point still needs to be made that) all are one interconnected chain”. And so, for example, “everything that will eventually be revealed in the form of the lights of SaG where initially concealed in the lights of AV (which preceded it)” and the same goes for other such interconnected phenomena.

And he says in regard to the latter that “R’ Chaim Vital wrote that even though we use the terms ‘ear’ and ‘eyes’ in the context of Adam Kadmon, this is only …  to give us a faint indication of something that’s intrinsically beyond our grasp [1]. For these terms only actually apply where the light relates to the lower realms…. whereas here above (in the very highest realms) the use of these terms is purely figurative inasmuch as this is the place of the root of the phenomena below”. That’s to say that ‘seeing’, ‘hearing’, etc. are only ideational — “theoretical” — in Adam Kadmon. We extrapolate their functions and makeup from the lower realms in which they actually function [2], but these phenomena don’t actually function in the lofty and recondite realm of Adam Kadmon.

Note:

[1]       Eitz Chaim, Gate O,Ch,P Ch. 1, p.34a.

[2]       See Adir Bamarom p. 337 where it’s written, “If you have the heart of a sage you’ll understand (i.e., extrapolate) the hidden from the revealed, that is, the superior (formation) from the inferior (one)”

(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”.

But, what’s going on here? Why break down the Tetragrammaton into these variations? The most obvious point behind it is to reiterate the idea offered above that Adam Kadmon (and everything following in its wake) always and forever follows the sequence of the four letters of the name Havayah, i.e., the Tetragrammaton (Petach 31).

It’s obvious, though, that Ar”i, who first spoke of this phenomenon in full (though it’s cited in the Zohar), understood that there’s the Tetragrammaton as its is put simply and there’s the Tetragrammaton in all its complexity; and that the breakdown of the four letters to AV, SaG, etc. is an expression of that complexity which calls for analysis and a setting down of what goes where, and to what end.

But Ramchal has a unique perspective on this in Iggerot Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at (8). As he puts it, each phenomenon in the upper realms “needs a particular combination of Lights, and so for example, (one might require) a combination of 10 aspects of one Sephira, 3 of another, 5 of another, etc., in order to bring about the action that this combination alone can which none other could (whereas other phenomena would require other combinations)”. Then he points out that we find the same factor at play in nature, where each phenomenon requires a specific combination of ingredients without which the phenomenon wouldn’t do what it’s expected to.

So, in a manner of speaking, each Partzuf — Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Briah, etc. — requires a specific “recipe” of ingredients: the 72 letters of AV, the 63 of SaG, etc. That’s to say that they each require the input of the Tetragrammaton, but in specific combination, and that’s what’s under consideration here.

(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”.