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

The first part of Petach 65 is pretty straightforward. It indicates that the themes of male and female were already found in higher realms than this, i.e., they were already found in Adam Kadmon, since the system of governance had already been set in place in the primary, higher-yet mystical configurations of Chessed and Din which are themselves male and female respectively [1].

Notes:

[1]       See Petach 63 above. Also see the discussion in Eitz Chaim, Sha’ar D’rushei HaNukudot 2, and in Ramchal’s Klallei Chochmat HaEmet 16.

As Ramchal underscores in his comments here, “this combination already existed in the supreme lights that came about after the Tzimtzum, as soon as The Line and Residue came into existence”, it’s that primal.

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Petach 64 then explains how MaH and BaN — as male and female — then join and function together. It comes to this, as enunciated in the Petach itself and Ramchal’s own remarks on it.

The female has the vessels that had been clarified in BaN ascend upward from the combination of Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah where they’d been upward to Atzilut [1], in order to receive their light. And the male then rectifies their Chessed (right-side) aspect while the female rectifies their Gevurah (left-side) aspect [2]. But there’s more to it, that’s far less arithmetic and linear than that.

The male then shares some of itself with the female and they join together. And that rectifies the center aspect of the equation, thanks to the Da’at (from the center aspect) that then joins them. That process then forms the thesis-antithesis-synthesis (left-right-center or Chessed–Din–Rachamim) triad that hadn’t yet been formed in the Shevira process, and that is the richness of the Partzufim.

There’s one more event. The male then grants the female the light and vessels from MaH while joining MaH with BaN in the process and the male then allows for the general makeup of the offspring, while the female then allows for a breakdown into parts. That final aspect is based on the fact that the male MaH alludes to The Line spoken of earlier on which is all-inclusive rather than specific, while the female BaN alludes to The Residue [3] which is specific and breaks The Line down into parts.

Here’s how the Petach itself is worded:

Out of all of the Sephirot in BaN that were broken and that descended down to Briah in the Shevira process, those parts that were to be clarified were indeed clarified, and they, i.e., their vessels, then ascended to receive their lights that were in Atzilut. And they did that by means of Nukveh, which elevated them that way. Alternatively, all the levels of MaH, both their vessels and lights that joined with them, then descended by means of the male, i.e., the Yesod of Adam Kadmon, which drew them downward that way and placed them in Nukveh.

Nevertheless, the male also took part in the Tikkun of the vessels that ascended through the female: the male repaired the right side, while the female repaired the left side. The parts then joined together in Nukveh, and MaH joined with every one of them. And the offspring was complete.

Notes:

[1] See Petach 46.

[2] This depiction comes to settle an apparent contradiction between Ar”i’s statements in Mevoh Sha’arim 2:3:9, and Eitz Chaim, Sha’ar Anach 1.

[3] See our discussion in 8:6.

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Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.

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).

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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

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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.

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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.

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Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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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

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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

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AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

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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”.

Here, then, is Petach 60 along with its explanation.

After the lights of Adam Kadmon’s “eyes”, which are BaN, emerged, they were aligned with the governance of Malchut of Adam Kadmon, whereas when the radiation of the “forehead”, which is MaH, emerged, it was aligned with the governance of Yesod of Adam Kadmon, as we’d just explained.

Yesod and Malchut of Adam Kadmon then conjoined, and as a consequence, all judgments were mitigated, and governance functioned along the lines of Tikkun and “love”, rather than disjunction and rupture.

(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.

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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 Ramchal explains in his comments here, there is in fact no contradiction in the depictions offered in EitzChaim cited above. For, when it comes to the Lights under discussion here, “aside from (considering) the sources from which they emerged, we must also take into account the sources to which they’re (eventually) bound, and from which they derive their power and governing ability”.           

So we need to know that while “these Lights (originally) emerged from the ‘eyes’, they were then bound to Adam Kadmon’s Malchut and they (likewise) derived their governing ability from there.”

(c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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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”.