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Ramchal laid out the basic details of Sh’virat HaKeilim rather dryly in HaIlan HaKodesh (2:2-3), in more depth in Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at (35) and in Klallim Rishonim (10-15), and somewhat less obscurely in Da’at Tevunot (114, 118, 124, 125-126).

We’ll present that and also his comments in Iggerot Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at (37-38).

(c) 2012 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”.

Here’s how Ramchal depicts the process.

The first thing to realize is that the World of Nikkudim, which we’ll be concentrating upon here and is the “theater” upon which the Breaking of the Vessels played itself out, was a sort of temporary way-station between Adam Kadmon, which we discussed before, and the Worlds of Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah, which we’ll be concentrating on from here on.

As he worded it in his comments to Petach 36:

“This is the way Atzilut developed: the Supernal Will began to conceive of it …. And while it was beginning to be conceived of, before it took actual form… the lights of Nikkudim came about, which corresponded to an as-yet incomplete Atzilut. And only then was the actual form of Atzilut completed”. That’s to say that “the World of Nikkudim … emerged while the form of Atzilut was still incomplete”.

And the Zohar depicted the temporary nature of this realm, Ramchal points out here, with the statement that, “when the Craftsman struck with His hammer, He produced sparks on all sides … (which) came out as flashes that shone and were then immediately doused” (Zohar 3, p. 292b).

(c) 2012 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”.

(This will expand upon this entry).

Here are the details that we’d need to know in order to grasp the full import of Sh’virat HaKeilim. We’d first need to recall that Adam Kadmon was infused by a number of “lights” that ran the length and breadth of it, and which eventually emitted out of its “ears”, “nose”, “mouth”, and “eyes”. (They also emitted out of the follicles of its “hair”, but Ar”i didn’t address them as they’re too recondite to discuss.)

The lights that emitted from the “eyes” came to settle in a realm that was eventually and ultimately to have been occupied by the world of Atzilut (and then by the worlds of Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah) but which at this crucial point came to be termed the (short-lived, as we’ll learn) World of Nikkudim.

Like all worlds, the World of Nikkudim was likewise comprised of ten vessel-Sephirot. But there proved to be a fundamental difference between its first three and its final seven. The first three formed themselves into a sideways triad with a left, right, and center point, while the final seven all stood in a single upright column. While the three did not shatter (though they did experience s degree of degradation, so to speak, and descended into the realm that was to be occupied by the World of Atzilut) the latter seven shattered and plunged to the realm that was eventually to be occupied by the Worlds of Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah. Those broken vessels — which were nonetheless infused with 288 “holy sparks” as we’ll see below — then represented the ten kings spoken of before who reigned for a time but then died.

Our job in this world, by the way, is to enable what had descended so ignobly to Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah to ascend to Atzilut, to allow for the repairing of the “degradations” that were experienced there, and to enable all of that to soar upward.

(c) 2012 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”.

It’s interesting to note that the term “World of Tohu” which is so often cited in discussions of Ar”i’s system doesn’t appear in those sections of the Zohar that he drew from in his explanations of the process, or from any other section of it (in fact Ar”i refers to a world of both Tohu and of Bohu in Eitz Chaim Sha’ar HaKlallim 1). And while Ar”i contrasts Nikkudim with Akudim and Verudim there in Eitz Chaim (11:1) Ramchal doesn’t delve into that here at all.

(c) 2012 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”.

Let’s continue on from here.

It was the Breaking of the Vessels that allowed for the existence of all wrong and injustice in the universe as well as free will (with all its possibilities, both good and bad), as Ramchal will illustrate in this section, and it epitomizes a fissure and exile. But we’re also taught that a number of sparks of light fell downward, though [1], rather than vanishing all together, and that they can be redeemed and returned to their source much the way that sins can be rectified, bad choices can be amended, and exile can lead to redemption.

The question was raised as to what there was in the seven lower Sephirot that allowed them to shatter in fact, and it was offered that the seven came to act as independent agents, if you will, rather than in partnership [2] and that was their downfall.

But while that might be the reason in fact, we must bear in mind that God planned for this whole phenomenon to occur, so their independence wasn’t a “fault” at all so much as a fact of life — like wrong and injustice itself. That’s to say that while it would certainly behoove us all to work in tandem and to not “separate (ourselves) from the community” (Pirkei Avot 2:5) overall, nonetheless sometimes we need to; and the point is that while that oftentimes brings on harm and wrong, it also allows for good and redemption [3].

Notes:

[1]       We’re taught that 288 sparks fell, in fact — 288 major sorts of sparks with very many offshoots (Eitz Chaim 18:1).

[2]       Eitz Chaim 11:5 (also see 9:2 and 19:1 there).

]3]       After all, didn’t Ar”i, Ramchal, and countless other spiritual geniuses “separate” themselves from “the community” in their independence of thought and inspiration so as to allow for goodness and redemption (as was epitomized by the example of Moses who fled to the desert from where he drew his God-given inspiration to redeem the Jewish Nation).

(c) 2012 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”.

And the Zohar also offers various esoteric insights into the inter-Sephira aspects of Sh’virat HaKeilim. See a discussion of the “designs” that were woven into the primal “fabric” that God spread out before Him which suddenly became differentiated, unlike others (3, p. 128a), and of the “sparks” that leapt off of the “blacksmith’s hammer” and were quickly doused (3, p 292b), and contrast them to the smooth and untangled emanation process of Sephirot depicted earlier there (1, pp. 15a-b).

(c) 2012 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 Zohar offers us some astoundingly picturesque and evocative portrayals of this event which is rooted in Din and is the source of all wrong and evil. It speaks of the formation of “a head lying astride a camel, a head of opaque darkness spreading” and of the fact that “smoke started to emit from the terrible rage … (which) curled outward like a cunning snake to practice evil” which then formulated seven dreadful levels of evil, corresponding to the seven Sephirot that shattered (2, pp. 242b-244b). And it speaks elsewhere of seven (evil) breaths (1, pp. 146b-147a); of the Tohu and Bohu (“astonishing desolation”) spoken of in Genesis 1:2 (1, p. 16a); of the “four husks” that came about by the breakage (1, pp. 19b-20a; 2, pp. 108b, 140b-141a, 203a-b; 3, pp. 227a-b); of the roles played by the snake (1, p. 243b), various monsters (1, pp. 34a-35b, 52a), the ox, donkey, and dog (2, pp. 64a-65a), and more.

(c) 2012 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 any event, as Ar”i depicted it, there came to be a terrible, unholy crashing of vessels in the cosmic order [1]. Essentially, that came about as follows.

It’s known that each vessel compliments and corresponds to its light and vice versa. As such, the lower the potency of the light, the smaller and less durable is its vessel. Thus, when the Infinite Light first entered into Keter’s vessel, the latter was easily able to endure that light and to stay intact, and the same was basically true when it came to Chochma and Binah’s vessels [2]. The vessels of the lower seven lower Sephirot couldn’t endure that light, though, so they shattered in a sort of domino effect.

These seven then came to comprise the world of Nikkudim – dots or points — since they separated into distinct and independent point-like, relatively small “shells” or “shards”. And they became the basis of our world. They represent the kings of Edom who reigned for a time then died we referred to above.

Notes:

[1]       Ar”i’s teachings about this were recorded in many places including Eitz Chaim, Heichal HaNikkudim; Mevoh Sha’arim 2:2:1-11; Sha’ar HaHakdamot, Derush b’Olam HaNikkudim; etc. Ramchal laid out the details in HaIlan HaKodesh Ch. 2; Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 31- 41; etc.

[2]       … overall, though they did diminish to some subtle degree

(c) 2012 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”.

It’s likely that the prototype for the breaking of the vessels of the original ten Sephirot created by God was the breaking of the tablets with the Ten Commandments that were written by the hands of God. We’re told that “when Moses drew closer to the camp and saw the (golden) calf and the dances (that the Jews were engaged in), his anger was kindled, and he flung the tablets from his hands, shattering them at the foot of the mountain” (Exodus 32:19) as the letters contained there all flew about [1] like sparks of fire. And it undoubtedly also draws upon the themes of the sundering of the human connection to the Garden of Eden, to the destruction of the Holy Temples, and more.

Nonetheless the text that Ar”i drew upon for his depiction was the section of the Zohar known as Idra Rabbah, The Great Assembly (3, pp. 135a-b) which refers to the death of the original kings of Edom (Genesis 36:31-39) and connects their deaths to the creation of worlds that were then destroyed before our known universe came about [2].

Notes:

[1] Avot d’Rebbi Natan 2:11 (also see Avodah Zara 18a and Zohar 1: 216b-217a for flying letters).

[2]  See Midrash Tehillim 90:13, Zohar 1, pp. 24, 154a, 262b.

(c) 2012 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”.

We’re told that the existence of flaws and of their repair is rooted in the issue of the aforementioned “Breaking of the Vessels” (Petach 37). That’s to say that the entire universe of right and wrong, justice and injustice, of things gone awry then gone right (awry again, then right again, etc.), of things being on-course then off-course (etc.) et al is rooted in the mysterious notion of Sh’virat HaKeilim, “The Breaking of the Vessels”.

As one Kabbalist put it, “it is one of the most sublime and arcane mysteries of the Torah and is the underpinning of the entire science of Kabbalah which is itself meant to explain God’s role in creation”. It helps to explain “the mystery of free choice and all the harm that has come about in all the worlds as a consequence of (bad choices)”, as well as the rectification of things that come about through correct choices, the role of Torah in all that, the form and substance of the yetzer harah and yetzer hatov and much more [1].

So we’d clearly need to do what we can to understand it.

Note:

[1]       R’ Y.I. Chaver in Pitchei Sha’arim, Netiv HaSh’virah 1.

(c) 2012 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”.