Monthly Archives: April 2014

Partzufim (6)

Petach 72 indicates that some of the Partzufim are, i.e., function as, “male” and others as “female”. That is, some of them, the “male” ones, function as a conduit for Chessed, and others i.e., the “female” ones, function as a conduit for Gevurah. But when they conjoin, both forms of conduction combine and “give birth” to a desired action, as there’s nothing that isn’t a combination of the two qualities of Chessed and Gevurah. This harkens back to what was said above in 11:3; see there for an explanation.

 Ramchal offers in his comments here that there are three reasons why everything is a combination of Chessed (allowance and consent) and Gevurah (prohibition and refusal): to allocate reward and punishment (as an allowance for one’s freely-made decisions to do right, or a refusal to allow for it for decisions to do wrong), to allow for counterbalance (which only the existence of patent opposites like Chessed and Gevurah allows for), and because the very essence of things are rooted in these concepts (so their offspring must be comprised of them, too).

(c) 2014 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”.

Partzufim (5)

Petach 71 reads, the arrangement of the lights, i.e., the Sephirot, of the Partzuf, their interconnections and everything about them are just like the arrangement of the limbs and organs of a human body. That’s to say that everything that exists in man i.e., when it comes to his organs, has a corresponding aspect in the lights in the Partzufim above [1].

As Ramchal points out in his comments here, “this corresponds to the mystical understanding of (the often cited verse that reads) ‘from my flesh I perceive God’ (Job 19:26)”, which has allowed many Kabbalists to grasp the makeup of the upper realms by inference.

In fact, as Ramchal continues in his comments, “it’s in the Partzufim (alone) that we find this differentiation into particulars, not in the Sephirot”. That’s to say that it’s the complexities and subtleties of the Partzufim that allow for analogies which the relative straightforward and linear makeup of the Sephirot would not.

 

Note:

[1] Also see Klallim MiSefer Kinat Hashem Tzivakot 9 and Iggerot Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 3.

 

(c) 2014 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”.

In Pesach Mode

Getting ready for Pesach physically and spiritually takes time. We’ll be on break until afterwards.

A Chag Kosher v’Samaiach to all!