Monthly Archives: July 2012

Our subject is termed rah in Hebrew. While it’s often and incongruously translated as “wicked” or “evil”, we choose to translate it as “wrong” or “injustice”, or a combination of the two, as that seems to be the subject at hand [1].

In fact, there are very many other meanings of the term, which include “inferior” or “worthless”, as in a bad computer for example; “dangerous”, or “malignant”, as in a bad illness; “noxious”, “displeasing”, and “repugnant”, as in a bad odor; etc.

Very notably in the context of the Breaking of the Vessels — and given that it might very well be one of Ari”s sources for the concept — r’ah,its hitpoel (reflexive) form translates as “broken”, “crushed”, or “shattered” [2].

In any event, the tradition very clearly attributes its creation to God alone [3], and it’s usefulness and worth is certainly not denied [4].

Notes:

[1]       And also because not every instance of rah is inherently and intentionally wicked or bad, as we’ll soon point out.

[2]       See Daniel 2:40; also see Kiddushin 39b, Ta’anit 20b, etc.

[3]       See Isaiah 45:7, Amos 3:6, lamentations 3:38, Baba Batra 16a.

[4]       See Breishit Raba 9:7.

(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”.

Here’s what Ramchal offers in Iggerot Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at. He makes the point there that “the Din (i.e., harsh judgment and retribution) that was (first) revealed in the Trace hadn’t yet reached the (less sublime) stage where it could (actually) be referred to as the source of the other side until it came to form the vessels of Nikkudim … and to (bring about) the Breaking (of the Vessels)” (37). Let’s see what this means.

He’s touching on the idea here of the source of wrong and injustice in the upper realms. His contention is that while wrong and injustice — the products of other side — are ultimately rooted in the harsh judgment and retribution allowed for by the formation of the Trace, still and all, the Trace is so exalted a level that one wonders how anything so unworthy as wrong and injustice could ever be produced there. So he offers that while wrong and injustice are indeed ultimately rooted in the Trace, nonetheless, wrong and injustice couldn’t really come about until the Breaking of the Vessels came forth, which is a related but far less lofty stage than the Trace.

We’ve now touched somewhat on the fulsome subject of the root and role of wrong and injustice in the world, which Ramchal will expand upon in this section. Let’s step back, though, and see what other traditional sources say about that, as well as what Ramchal himself says about it in other works.

(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 repeats some of the details depicted above in Klallim Rishonim about the World of Nikkudim but he adds a number of other details that we’ll come upon later in this section.

He speaks of this realm as being the one in which “God hid His presence”, which is the underlying theme of “the death of the (seven) primordial kings (of Edom), when their light was removed and all that was left were their vessels”, and he adds that that proved to be “the root of all defects” and wrong in the world (11), which we’ll spend a considerable amount of time on later in this section. He adds that wrong “was (deemed by God to be) necessary … for what was to be” (12) which we’ll also explore.

Ramchal alludes to the idea of God hiding His presence once again there when he points out that it was in the World of Nikkudim that God “first hid away the truth that He was to reveal in the end” (10), which refers to the revelation of His Yichud which we cited earlier on and will refer to again in this section. And along those lines he adds that the World of Nikkudim contains all of the elements involved in “the complete perfection that will come about in the World to Come, when all of the defects that came about in the Breaking” of the Vessels (11) will be undone; and he states that it contains the “source of the other side” (11), as we indicated.

(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 lays out the raw details — as well as some other points of concern which we’ll turn elsewhere for — in HaIlan HaKodesh (2:2-3). He says there that, “Ten vessels were first emitted (from Adam Kadmon) and then their lights. The lights descended to Keter, Chochma, and Binah where they were (successfully) received, and then (they descended) to the seven lower (Sephirot) where they weren’t received. (As a consequence,) their vessels descended further downwards (to Atzilut, etc.) while their lights ascended upward to their places (i.e., their sources)…. These ten Sephirot were (then) in a state where they were divided into … the four worlds of Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah, and it was out of the very last one that wrong emitted…. (The latter seven Sephirot were like) ten separate, un-combinable sparks ….”

He adds some other raw details in Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at (35). He indicates that the lower seven Sephirot that emitted from Adam Kadmon “could neither accept or combine with” the light that entered into them, and (instead) broke and fell to the end of Assiyah… from which point the Sitra Achra (i.e., the “other side”) emerged”; that they “didn’t form the mystical configuration of a triad… (unlike) Keter, Chochma, and Binah (which) did”; and that it was their having formed that triad that “enabled Chessed (kindness) and Din (judgment) to stand as polar opposites” and for Rachamim (mercy) to “assume a place between them and to enable them to combine”, which was not so in the case of the lower seven Sephirot.

(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 laid out the basic details of Sh’virat HaKeilim rather dryly in HaIlan HaKodesh (2:2-3), in more depth in Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at (35) and in Klallim Rishonim (10-15), and somewhat less obscurely in Da’at Tevunot (114, 118, 124, 125-126).

We’ll present that and also his comments in Iggerot Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at (37-38).

(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”.

Here’s how Ramchal depicts the process.

The first thing to realize is that the World of Nikkudim, which we’ll be concentrating upon here and is the “theater” upon which the Breaking of the Vessels played itself out, was a sort of temporary way-station between Adam Kadmon, which we discussed before, and the Worlds of Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah, which we’ll be concentrating on from here on.

As he worded it in his comments to Petach 36:

“This is the way Atzilut developed: the Supernal Will began to conceive of it …. And while it was beginning to be conceived of, before it took actual form… the lights of Nikkudim came about, which corresponded to an as-yet incomplete Atzilut. And only then was the actual form of Atzilut completed”. That’s to say that “the World of Nikkudim … emerged while the form of Atzilut was still incomplete”.

And the Zohar depicted the temporary nature of this realm, Ramchal points out here, with the statement that, “when the Craftsman struck with His hammer, He produced sparks on all sides … (which) came out as flashes that shone and were then immediately doused” (Zohar 3, p. 292b).

(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”.

(This will expand upon this entry).

Here are the details that we’d need to know in order to grasp the full import of Sh’virat HaKeilim. We’d first need to recall that Adam Kadmon was infused by a number of “lights” that ran the length and breadth of it, and which eventually emitted out of its “ears”, “nose”, “mouth”, and “eyes”. (They also emitted out of the follicles of its “hair”, but Ar”i didn’t address them as they’re too recondite to discuss.)

The lights that emitted from the “eyes” came to settle in a realm that was eventually and ultimately to have been occupied by the world of Atzilut (and then by the worlds of Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah) but which at this crucial point came to be termed the (short-lived, as we’ll learn) World of Nikkudim.

Like all worlds, the World of Nikkudim was likewise comprised of ten vessel-Sephirot. But there proved to be a fundamental difference between its first three and its final seven. The first three formed themselves into a sideways triad with a left, right, and center point, while the final seven all stood in a single upright column. While the three did not shatter (though they did experience s degree of degradation, so to speak, and descended into the realm that was to be occupied by the World of Atzilut) the latter seven shattered and plunged to the realm that was eventually to be occupied by the Worlds of Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah. Those broken vessels — which were nonetheless infused with 288 “holy sparks” as we’ll see below — then represented the ten kings spoken of before who reigned for a time but then died.

Our job in this world, by the way, is to enable what had descended so ignobly to Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah to ascend to Atzilut, to allow for the repairing of the “degradations” that were experienced there, and to enable all of that to soar upward.

(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”.

It’s interesting to note that the term “World of Tohu” which is so often cited in discussions of Ar”i’s system doesn’t appear in those sections of the Zohar that he drew from in his explanations of the process, or from any other section of it (in fact Ar”i refers to a world of both Tohu and of Bohu in Eitz Chaim Sha’ar HaKlallim 1). And while Ar”i contrasts Nikkudim with Akudim and Verudim there in Eitz Chaim (11:1) Ramchal doesn’t delve into that here at all.

(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”.

Let’s continue on from here.

It was the Breaking of the Vessels that allowed for the existence of all wrong and injustice in the universe as well as free will (with all its possibilities, both good and bad), as Ramchal will illustrate in this section, and it epitomizes a fissure and exile. But we’re also taught that a number of sparks of light fell downward, though [1], rather than vanishing all together, and that they can be redeemed and returned to their source much the way that sins can be rectified, bad choices can be amended, and exile can lead to redemption.

The question was raised as to what there was in the seven lower Sephirot that allowed them to shatter in fact, and it was offered that the seven came to act as independent agents, if you will, rather than in partnership [2] and that was their downfall.

But while that might be the reason in fact, we must bear in mind that God planned for this whole phenomenon to occur, so their independence wasn’t a “fault” at all so much as a fact of life — like wrong and injustice itself. That’s to say that while it would certainly behoove us all to work in tandem and to not “separate (ourselves) from the community” (Pirkei Avot 2:5) overall, nonetheless sometimes we need to; and the point is that while that oftentimes brings on harm and wrong, it also allows for good and redemption [3].

Notes:

[1]       We’re taught that 288 sparks fell, in fact — 288 major sorts of sparks with very many offshoots (Eitz Chaim 18:1).

[2]       Eitz Chaim 11:5 (also see 9:2 and 19:1 there).

]3]       After all, didn’t Ar”i, Ramchal, and countless other spiritual geniuses “separate” themselves from “the community” in their independence of thought and inspiration so as to allow for goodness and redemption (as was epitomized by the example of Moses who fled to the desert from where he drew his God-given inspiration to redeem the Jewish Nation).

(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”.

And the Zohar also offers various esoteric insights into the inter-Sephira aspects of Sh’virat HaKeilim. See a discussion of the “designs” that were woven into the primal “fabric” that God spread out before Him which suddenly became differentiated, unlike others (3, p. 128a), and of the “sparks” that leapt off of the “blacksmith’s hammer” and were quickly doused (3, p 292b), and contrast them to the smooth and untangled emanation process of Sephirot depicted earlier there (1, pp. 15a-b).

(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”.