Category Archives: Uncategorized

Very well, but what does all this mean, as Ramchal understands it? We’ll need to turn to his Klallim Rishonim for that.

The relations between the lights and vessels that emit through the “orifices” of Adam Kadmon’s “face” and Adam Kadmon itself speak to the “system of governance that was set into place after the conjunction of the inner (components) and the external (ones)” [1]. That’s to say that the lights and vessels represent the way God arranged for the human soul (i.e., light) and body (i.e., vessel) to interact in the course of time.

His point is that there are always instances of a combination of a soul and a body; it’s just that sometimes the body is so very subtle and fine that it’s subsumed within the light and invisible and ineffective for all intents and purposes, while at other times it’s more or less visible and effective. This will not only explain all we’d offered above in more accessible terms, it will also speak to the various stages of human spiritual development, as we’ll see.

Notes:

[1]       Klallim Rishonim 9; also see Da’at Tevunot 54, 76-84.

(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”.

Ramchal also discusses the intrinsic relation between the lights and vessels to the orifices they emit out of. As he says in Petach 34, the “passageways”, i.e., the orifices known as the “ears”, “nose”, “mouth”, and “eyes” within Adam Kadmon’s “face”, through which the lights pass were specifically chosen because of the way they’re intrinsically connected to the interior of Adam Kadmon in the ways he explains there [1].

Note:

[1]       As Ramchal spell out in his comments there, “it’s clear that the way the light emerges (from Adam Kadmon’s ‘face’) isn’t haphazard. Rather, the passages were specially chosen to match their respective lights…. In fact, each light must pass through its own particular orifice rather than through any other because of the special relationship it has with it, because of which the light experiences a specific change when passing through that specific passageway…. This is what makes it possible for the lights of BaN (which are the lowest configuration) to emerge through the ‘eyes’ (which are obviously higher up on the head) while the lights of SaG (which are a higher configuration) emerge through the ‘ears’, ‘nose’ and ‘mouth’ (which are obviously lower than the ‘eyes’)”.

(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”.

But, there are not only lights at play, but vessels (i.e., more tangible phenomena) here, too. Where do they come from? After all, Ramchal points out in his comments to Petach 33, “the end of this … process is the formation of the vessel, which relates to the lower realms”.

So, in explanation, Ramchal says that each while aspect of Adam Kadmon has “a potential ‘vessel’ absorbed within it” (Klallot HaIlan 1:4), nonetheless, as we learn in Petach 33 (which is then confirmed in Petach 35), the “inner” and “encompassing” lights … come closer together, little by little, until they reach Adam Kadmon’s “mouth”, where a vessel is then brought about in fact.

(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 most important thing to be said about the “worlds” of Akudim, Nikkudim and Verudim is that they aren’t separate world per se, so much as realms — environments — in which the core Sephirot and vessels mature and come into play in the universe. And Adam Kadmon is the very first of them.

(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 explain the worlds of Akudim, and their associated terms the worlds of Nikkudim and of Verudim.

As Ar”i indicates, “it is explained by the scriptural passage in which Jacob says, ‘I saw in a dream that the rams who mounted the sheep were banded (Akudim), dotted (Nikkudim), and spotted (Verudim)’ (Genesis 31:10)….  They begin with Akudim because this is the light that came out of the mouth of Adam Kadmon, through which the vessels (to be discussed below) began to be revealed as ten internal and surrounding lights, bound together and connected within a single vessel. That is the reason why it is called Akudim, using the expression from the verse ‘… he bound (yakod) Isaac’ (Genesis 22:9)…. The higher lights of the ‘ear’ and ‘nose’ are not mentioned in this passage because the existence of vessels was not revealed in them” [1]. They’re termed Akudim because they’re included in one vessel which thus joins them all together [2].

Thus, in this first stage, the Sephirot were not yet divisible into separate lights contained in ten vessels; rather, they were experienced as a single vessel comprised of ten Sephira-elements.

The next stage is where the expansion of the lights began, and where from the one vessel that included all ten, the ten Sephirot became separate and distinguishable “dots”. This is what is called “the world of Nikkudim.” It can be said to be a sort of transition stage to the world of the Verudim. The latter is where every sephira becomes comprised of ten of its own, which was repeated over and over again.  It is the world of Atzilut, where we find the root of all multiplicity.

Notes:

[1]       From The Tree of Life pp. 232-233 (with slight changes).

[2]       See Eitz Chaim, Sha’ar ha’Akudim 3.

(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”.

Along with the aforementioned lights of AV and SaG come the lights of MaH and BaN from Adam Kadmon’s “navel” and below. They comprise the essence of the world right after and below Adam Kadmon, the world of Atzilut, which is vitally important for the fulfilling of God’s plans. As Ramchal states in his comments to Petach 33, “The intention from the very outset was to bring into being the root of the likeness of man”. This root is Atzilut, which is comprised of MaH and BaN. BaN emits from Adam Kadmon’s “eyes” while MaH emits from its “forehead” [1].

All of these together comprise what’s referred to as The Lights of Nikkudim, which Ramchal refers to as “the gist of the makeup of Adam Kadmon” [2].

Notes:

[1]       This is all explained at great length in Eitz HaChaim’s discussions of the Sh’virat HaKeilim (“The Breaking of the Vessels”) and the Tikkun (“The[ir] Repairing”) as well as in Ramchal’s discussions in Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 30-34, and in Klallot HaIlan1-2. Also see Ramchal’s comments to Petach 34.

[2]       Iggerot Pitchei v’Da’at 8.

(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”.

Here, then, is how Adam Kadmon’s inner light manages in fact to make contact with its encompassing light, bit by bit. After reporting that AV emits its inner light from its “hair”, and SaG emits its from its “ears” and below, Ramchal offers the following:

“The upper lights emit from the ‘ears’ — ten from its right side and ten from its left … down to the ‘chin’. The middle lights emit from the ‘nose’ — ten from its right side and ten from its left … down to the ‘chest’. The lower lights emit from the ‘mouth’”, then some more lights emit from “both ‘ears’ and both ‘nostrils’ … and they incorporate into the two ‘jaws’ … down to the ‘navel’” (Klallot HaIlan 1:3).

Suffice it to say that there are alternately complex and simple explanations for each phenomenon, but at bottom it comes to the fact that this is what a prophet or special soul would envision — these are simply the facts in the heavens.

(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’d already cited the beginning of the complex laying-out of Adam Kadmon’s various esoteric elements. What it’s all meant to illustrate is the fact that while Adam Kadmon’s “inner light and encompassing light are initially far from one another” they nonetheless “steadily come closer together, little by little”, as Ramchal points out in his comments to Petach 33. And as we’ll find, they all do what they do in order to allow for the declension of the esoteric worlds — from Adam Kadmon to Atzilut to Briah to Yetzirah to Assiyah, and eventually down to our own material world.

We’ll see how Ramchal sets this up and explains it reasoning as well as its relation to ourselves in the next few entries.

(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”.

Ramchal takes another short excursion, this time in his comments to Petach 33, and offers this definition of and the difference between Chochma and Binah which are both elements of the thinking process (as well as elemental components of creation and reality, of course).

The term Chochma (literally, “wisdom”), he explains, represents “how things are arranged in the depth of the mind” and it’s in its nature “to be hidden and concealed”. The Binah aspect of the mind (literally, “understanding”), he says, “reveals the hidden mysteries of Chochma”. That’s to say that Chochma represents the deep and passive unconscious, while Binah represents the rational and actively conscious mind. Others have spoken in like terms while yet others have presented them otherwise.

See Zohar 3, p. 235b and elsewhere where Chochma is broken down into two terms: Koch Ma, meaning, “the potentiality of whatever (exists)”, including one’s thoughts, suggesting that it’s in fact one’s latent, unconscious thoughts. For Binah see Chagiga 14a which speaks of it as granting one the ability to “understand one thing from another” — to consciously expand upon the initial intuitive notion and follow its course. The two are discussed at great length, along with Da’at, in Chabad literature: see especially Tanya 1:3 and Iggeret HaKodesh 5.

(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 take a couple of small excursions here before we go on. Our first:

Why is BaN (representing 2+50) not termed “NaB” (representing 50+2), so that like AV (representing 70+2), SaG (representing 60+3), and MaH (representing 40+5), its ten’s place numeral would come before its one’s place numeral? The short answer is because if it were termed NaB (representing 50+2) then it wouldn’t equal 9 in “the small number gematria” value.

The “small number gematria value” comes down to this: were I to add 2+4+6 I’d of course arrive at 12. If I were to add the 1 and 2 of the figure 12 I’d arrived at just now, I’d then arrive at the number 3, which is the “small number gematria” value of the original 2+4+6 (i.e., 2+4+6=12=3).

So, just as AV’s 72 is 7+2=9, SaG’s 63 is 6+3=9, and MaH’s 45 is 4+5=9 — BaN’s 52 is 2+700=9 in “small number gematria value” (given that the final letter Nun is worth 700), whereas it would be worth only 7 (5+2) if it read NaB (Midrash Peliah 163).

Why would they need to each be worth 9? According to that same source, that’s because that represents the nine major components of each Partzuf which is then completed by its tenth — it’s Malchut; or because the word for truth (emet) also has the “the small number gematria” value of 9 (1+40+400=9).

We’re not told there why either factor is important per se, but we’d surmise that the point is that each of the names, AV, SaG, etc. should have the same “valence” or potency. The other point might be that NaB is also an abbreviation of Nishmato B’Eden (so-and-so, “whose soul is Heaven”; i.e., R.I.P.) or Nirah B’eini (“it appears to me” i.e., “in my humble opinion”), which would then cause reading problems in various contexts.

(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”.