As we’d seen earlier (see note 33 to Sec. 7 above), Ramchal explains Ar”i layout of the worlds of Akudim, Nikkudim, and Verudim which we’ve been involved in as follows.
In the 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.
And 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. So we’ll concern ourselves here at the end of this section with the formation of Atzilut and its associated worlds.
(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org
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