Monthly Archives: December 2013

As Ramchal explains in his comments here, this is a depiction of the descent sequence (השתלשלות), “whereby each light is emanated by and emerges from another light” gradually and step by step. And it comes about through the process of zivvug — “conjunction”, “union”, or intercourse in human terms.

As he words it in the Petach itself, of these two producing lights, one would be “male” and from the side of MaH, and one “female” and from the side of BaN. They would then produce the light that needs to be produced by their conjunction, which will thus be constructed out of both MaH and BaN.

That’s to say that everything — even supernal lights, as in this instance — was designed to be produced by the union of “male” (MaH in this instance) and “female” (BaN here) much the way that children are born by the union of a mother (an Imma in Hebrew) and a father (Abba).

Ramchal tempers the sexual implications by offering in his comments to the Petach that this works the way ideas are “born” too, in that they’re produced by the rapid interaction of other, preceding thoughts. But his central point here is that natural and supernatural entities are produced by the rapid (i.e., excited) interaction and union of male and female progenitors [1].

As Ar”i stated the principle, “the zivvug of Abba and Imma comes about so as to have lights from yet higher levels descend onto lower levels …. And the intention behind the zivvug of Zeir Anpin and Nukveh was to have souls descend into this world” as in childbirth (Sha’ar HaKavvanot, K’riat Sh’ma 2) [2].

Notes:

[1]       See Eitz Chaim 39 on this analogy.

[2]       The frankly sexual nature of the discussion is what flabbergasted non-Kabbalists when Kabbalah was first being discussed openly in Torah circles, and it’s probably what lay behind the edict that one shouldn’t study it before being married (or before 40 years of age, when one’s passions were presumably tempered and could read these things with more aplomb).

(c) 2013 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”.

The beginning of the next Petach (63) is straightforward. It says that since Divine governance is based on the mystical principle of a combination of Chessed and Din, which is the source of right and of wrong, all of which is for the sake of reward and punishment, it follows then that two progenitors are needed for every action.

Thus, a light that’s to govern will only emerge through the agency of two lights that draw it forth, i.e., that will produce it.

What follows, though, touches on an important theme that appears throughout the Zohar and Kabbalistic literature: zivvug — “conjunction”, “union”, or intercourse in human terms.

(c) 2013 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 offers the following well known Kabbalistic principle in his comments to Petach 62 (our subject at hand) which is that, “every (supernal) level has a corresponding level in regard to human service”. That’s to say that everything that occurs in the human experience corresponds to and must occur in the supernal realms, and vice versa.

As such, “since humankind’s service is entirely based on free will, wherever there’s free choice, there has to be the possibility of (both) damage and repair, (as well as) reward and punishment (in the supernal realm).”

And so we learn in this Petach that in order for there to be human free will and subsequent reward and punishment, the Sephira system was erected upon the foundations of MaH which allows for goodness and Tikkun, and BaN which allows for rah and its consequences, both of which need to exist together.

Thus we’re taught in the Petach itself that all things having to do with defects — i.e. whatever allows for defilements and their subsequent penalties — are rooted in the Sephirot of BaN, whereas all things having to do with Tikkun, which come to repair these defects, are rooted in the Sephirot of MaH.

But each level needs to be comprised of both MaH and Ban for the sake of the sort of governance needed, i.e., to allow for free will. As a consequence, all elements of rah exist there under the auspices of BaN, while all elements of goodness exist there under the auspices of MaH [1].

Note:

[1] Also see Klallei Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 8.

(c) 2013 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”.

The Petach then ends with the following, which underscores our role in the great Tikkun. But other levels of BaN that weren’t connected to MaH remained behind in Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah, so creation wasn’t complete given that there were still a number of deficiencies. Nonetheless this will eventually be rectified step by step [1] to the point where everything will be repaired and in a state of perfection.

Note:

[1] See 9:5 above.

(c) 2013 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”.

He then begins there, in his comments, to equate the broken-then-fixed state of the universe to the broken-then-fixed relationship between the Jewish Nation and God, citing these verses: whereas at first “The virgin of Israel is fallen; (and) she shall (seemingly) never rise” (Amos 5:2), nonetheless, “I will (eventually) raise up David’s fallen tabernacle” (ibid. 9:11).

In other words,” as Ramchal offers, “When the Assembly of Israel fell, it was because the Supreme King hadn’t yet revealed His Glory … completely. For, was happened (at that point) only occurred because (the world) awaited revelation”.

But in fact, God “didn’t want to merely return them to the state they’d already been in” without allowing them to better themselves even more so. Instead, “He wanted to bring them to a new state of being in which they’d be (fully) rectified” in the end. The point is that while He started the Tikkun process, He expected and enabled us to finish it ourselves.

“Thus the Supreme Mind set about making what it made through this (initial) repair process, until all of the different levels and Partzufim were produced, and they were all comprised of parts that had been damaged in the earlier Shevira together with the Tikkun that came to fix them” i.e., until they were granted the parts of MaH and BaN out of which the Partzufim were made.

And so while “the world is governed thus” for the meanwhile, “the work is now in the hands of humanity to complete”.

(c) 2013 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 already explained in Petach 54 [1] that BaN had to await another irradiation in order to initiate its Tikkun process — “the Partzufim (that derived) from the lights of MaH and BaN combined”, as he puts it in his comments here.

And so we’re told in Petach 61 that MaH then had all the levels that were connected through BaN connected to it, and out of them were produced the “Tree of Holiness”, which is to say, the Worlds of Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah.

 Notes:

[1]       See 10:1 and note 3 to that section.

(c) 2013 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”.