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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