We’ll offer a couple more paragraphs to the middle of this post below.
For now, though, he makes a number of other points about the nature, meaning, and purpose of rah. Referring once again to the source of wrong and injustice lying in the upper realms, Ramchal notes here that it couldn’t have derived from a higher point than the world of Nikkudim. Since “higher up than that there’s nothing that can be relevant to any feature of the other side whatsoever. In Nikkudim, though, something’s revealed that does bear some relation to the function of the other side” (comments to Petach 44).
He also addresses its roots in a couple of Petachim in our section, offering that rah started to come about when the light of Atzilut and its offshoots, which is from Ein Sof, had to … wait for its vessel to be complete, since that’s where the root of evil lies. Only afterwards will the light shine within it, i.e. join with it, after which everything will be completed. And it’s also explained here that the light wasn’t originally joined with the vessels in the world of Nikkudim, but remained hidden above in Adam Kadmon until the vessels completed their task in order to provide a place for wrong to rule and to complete its rule (Petach 41).
He informs us that wrong was in fact rooted in nothing other than in the mystical notion of the “garments” of Atzilut, i.e., Briah, Yetzirah and Assiyah … which had to be separated into all their component elements … to first provide an environment for wrong(Petach 43).
And continuing to make the point about how tenuous the connection between God Himself and wrong is (which necessitated the Breaking of the Vessels) Ramchal then says that the aforementioned slender trace of a root for the “other side” only manifested itself in the very lowest aspects of the vessels, i.e., in the lower seven Sephirot of Nikkudim(Petach 45).
(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”.