Category Archives: Kabbalah, Jewish Thought, Ramchal, Torah, Hashkafa

הפרצופים – מהם זכרים, ומהם נקבות. דהיינו מהם ממשיכים החסד, ומהם הדין. ובזיווגם מתחברות ההמשכות ביחד, ונולדת הפעולה הצריכה, כי אין דבר שאינו מוסכם משתי מדות חסד ודין.

 ויש איזה שינויים באורותיהם, ושינוי ממש בחוקם. אך שינוי הצורה, שינוי ממש, אינו אלא באורות ההמשכה, שהם היסודות, כי הם הממשיכים, ואליהם נמשכים כל חלקי הפרצוף, להמשיך לפי חוקם:

Some of the Partzufim are “male” and others “female”. That is, some of them, the “male” ones, act as a conduit for Chessed and others i.e., the “female” ones, act as a conduit for Gevurah. But when they conjoin, both forms of conduction combine and “give birth” to the desired action, as there’s nothing that isn’t a combination of the two qualities of Chessed and Gevurah.

Yet there are certain differences between the lights of “male” and “female” as well as real differences in their processes. But when it comes to differences in form, there are real differences indeed, but only in the lights that are involved in the conduction process, namely the two respective Yesods. Since they act as conduction agents, as all the different, i.e., other, parts of the Partzuf are drawn to them i.e., the respective Yesods, in order to act as conduits in keeping with their own processes.

(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”.

סדר אורות הפרצוף וקשריהם וכל עניניהם, הוא ממש כסדר אברי הגוף באדם. כל מה שיש באדם – יש כנגדו בענין האורות בפרצופים למעלה:

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, everything that exists in man i.e., when it comes to his organs, has a corresponding aspect in the lights in the Partzufim above.

(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”.

פרצוף הוא מה שאור אחד מתפשט ומתגלה בכל פרטיו, בסדר אחד, שבו איזה חלקים נשארים פנימים, ואיזה חיצונים, איזה עליונים, ואיזה תחתונים.

וכולם מקושרים בסדר אחד, להיות מתחברים אלה באלה, ומתנהגים על פי הנהגה אחת כללית, כל אחד לפי ענינו. וכללותם הם תרי”ג חלקים, כל אחד בנוי אחר כך מכמה חלקים קטנים, כמו שצריך לשלמותו.

A Partzuf comes about by a single light, i.e., Sephira, expanding outward and revealing all of its aspects as a single order i.e., in human configuration, in which certain parts remain interior aspects, i.e., the Mochin (“minds”), others remain exterior, i.e., the vessels, some parts are high, and others are low.

All of them are connected into a single order in order to be joined to one another and to be governed by one overarching form of governance, each part in accordance with its own function. There are 613 parts to each Partzuf all in all, each of which is then comprised of several smaller parts needed for its perfection.

(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”.

The final Petach of this section, 69, sums up the great theme of Tikkun with the following.

The Tikkun is brought about by the balance-scale that all the lights need to repair each other [1], with just enough “openings” and just enough “closings”, ­ i.e., interactions between the parts, to produce a rectified form of Divine governance with all the great orders in place and able to work in conjunction with each other.

That would enable there to be a single cycle of creation in which everything will eventually achieve a state of goodness without anymore wrong and of utter perfection.

We’ll turn next to Section 12, Partzuf.

Notes:

[1] See Petach 59, referred to in 11:2 above.

(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”.

Petach 68 offers an overview of the process and its goal in a straightforward way.

It says that all the parts that ascend, their degrees of ascent, and their ways of interconnecting [1] are exactly what’s needed to make this world the way it needs to be made in the course of the Tikkun process — with just the right number of reparations, of deficiencies, and of processes needed to complete the cycle of Divine governance and to lead to the revelation of God’s Yichud.

Note:

 [1]       See Ramchal’s own comments here as well as Eitz Chaim Sha’ar Zeir Anpin 3 and Sha’ar Attik 2 for details.

(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 order to understand Petach 67 we’d need to know the following. Erich Anpin is the source of everything under discussion here. And so in order for there to be vessels below, they need to be rooted in Erich Anpin — in its lowest triad, that is: it’s Netzach, Hod, and Yesod combination, which is termed Erich Anpin’s “legs”. So, those “legs” need to descend below (to the worlds of Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah) in order to allow for Erich Anpin’s lights to enter into them, and to maintain those vessels [1].

When the vessels need to ascend, though, to Atzilut in the Tikkun process, they do that through Erich Anpin’s “legs”, too. And they go from the lower triad of Netzach, Hod, and Yesod up to the next higher one of Chessed, Gevurah, and Tipheret, which then allows for an even greater degree of Tikkun [1]. As such, this initial descent or “folding-over” of Erich Anpin’s “legs” is the very first phenomenon to allow the broken vessels to ascend and experience Tikkun [2]. (And those “legs” serve as the gateway that connects all.)

Here’s Petach 67 itself with our interpolations.

It was the “folding-over” of Erich Anpin’s “legs”, i.e., its Netzach, Hod, and Yesod elements, that was the first thing that granted the ability to the broken vessels to ascend from Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah to Atzilut, and that enabled all their subsequent ascents.

In truth, the vessels depended on those “legs”, and were initially sustained by them below, i.e., in Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah. So, when the “legs” were “folded-over” the vessels also had the ability to return upward.

It’s in this sense that Erich Anpin is the source of everything, and that they, i.e., the “legs”, which were the part of Erich Anpin, could serve as the source of the vessels when they descended. In fact, as a result of the “folding-over of the legs”, Chessed, Gevurah, and Tipheret of Erich Anpin also served as their source when the Tikkun became even greater.

Notes:

 [1]       The word used to describe the function of Erich Anpin’s “legs” is k’ful in Hebrew. The term either translates as “double (-functioning)”, or “folded”. We chose to translate it “folding-over” to express the twofold nature of the phenomenon, and to depict the sort of physical shifting the triad would have to go through to allow for both decent and ascent.

[2]       See Klallot HaIlan 4:1. While this seems to be derived from Eitz Chaim 17:2, it’s more likely derived from R’  Sarug’s Derushei Olam HaMalbush (as explicated in Tal Orot 1:8-9) because of the discrepancy between the place of the world of Briah versus Atzilut in the process.

(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”.

As a result of the “coupling” process, the MaH and BaN aspects continue along until they settle in the female in a sort of Hylic, amorphous lump that doesn’t assume its full shape until its parts blossom (much like a zygote that starts off tiny though genetically all-encompassing). The “pregnancy” stage is a “fleshing out” period of the various lights, i.e., Sephirot (like the zygote in its gestation process) which can then function. And “birth” is the whole thing coming to fruition and growing more and more on its own.

Here’s how it’s worded in the rest of Petach 66:

During the “coupling” process the subdivisions of MaH and BaN are drawn downward until everything settles in the female. And everything that needs to exist in that light is contained there in general, no more and no less than is necessary.

This general formation must then to be subdivided into its parts, but it, i.e., the “offspring”, isn’t made manifest there until all of those parts are fully manifested. As such, until that happens, it, i.e., the “offspring”, is concealed within the light it depends on in order to be completed by it. This is because the lights of the one¸ i.e., of the “offspring”, can only be completed through the lights of the other, i.e., of the female from which it was formed.

Once it, i.e., the “offspring”, reaches the stage where all of its details are manifest then, even though each contains only the barest amount of illumination possible, it, i.e., the “offspring”, is then made manifest, since there’s no need to differentiate its light any further, and it can only gain further ability and illumination during the “suckling” process.

 “Birth” occurs when it, i.e., the “offspring”, is made manifest from the higher light outward.

(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”.

There are other steps, too: “feeding” (or, maturation) and what’s alternatively termed “adulthood” or “(the acquisition of one’s full) brain (power)”, which will be explained later [1].

Notes:

1.         See Petachim 119-122 below. Also see Eitz Chaim 27-28 and Ramchal’s Klallim Rishonim 22.

(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”.

Petach 65 then expands upon the idea of coupling by adding that any Tikkun that comes about through the interactions of male and female comes under the rubric of the mystical notions of “coupling” as well as “pregnancy”, and “birth”.

As Ramchal explains in his comments here, human phenomena like “coupling”, “pregnancy”, “birth” and the like are used here because, “as we know, the entire Tikkun-process is connected to the … mystical notion of ‘the likeness of man’”. That’s to say that human expressions and concepts are used to explain these sorts of supernal ones because the two are analogous.

(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”.

The second half of Petach 65, though, calls for a bit of explanation. It’s offered there that it’s just that there was a difference when it came to Nikkudim, i.e., when it came to this lower formulation of male and female. Male and female weren’t rectified at first in this instance since BaN (the female) first emerged on its own then.

It was only afterwards, when MaH (the male) also came to play a part in them, i.e., in the Sephirot of Nikkudim, through the rectification process we’ve been discussing that the sources of male and female from Atzilut and downwards came to depend upon a “balance”, which is the mystical conjunction of MaH with BaN.

That’s to say that God intended for male and female to appear and start functioning separately in Nikkudim unlike in the higher realms, so as to allow for imperfection. It was in Nikkudim that there needed to be the balancing triad we mentioned earlier [1], depicted as the מתקלא (Matkala, balancing scale). It will be explained later [2].

Notes:

[1]       See 8:7 above about the need for a balancing triad.

[2]       In Petachim 69, 96, 98, and 102. The Matkala is first mentioned in Sefer Yetzirah 2:1 and is expanded upon at the beginning of Sifra D’Tziyutah and elsewhere.

(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”.