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Thus, drawing on sources that they never cited, the very early Onkelos (c. 35–120 CE) interpolated the term in his Aramaic translation of many Torah verses. “May God … dwell in the tents of Shem” (Genesis 9:27) becomes “May God cause His Shechina to dwell in the dwelling places of Shem”; “And they shall make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell in their midst” (Exodus 25:8) becomes “… I will cause My Shechina to dwell among them”; and “But only to the place which God your Lord will choose from all your tribes, to set His Name there; you shall inquire after His dwelling and come there” (Deuteronomy 12:5) becomes “But unto the place which God your Lord will chose His Shechina to dwell there, even to the House of His Shechina… ”. And the even earlier Yonatan Ben Uzziel (ca. 450 B.C.E.) translated “Holy, holy, holy is God Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”” (Isaiah 6:3) as “… holy in the highest and exalted heavens is the House of His Shechina, holy upon the earth is the work of His might, holy forever… the whole earth is full of the brightness of His Glory”.

(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.

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 this process was accomplished through the agency of Malchut, Ramchal goes on to say here in Petach 52. And he immediately ties it in to the Shechina in his own comments here (which Malchut is often equated with). So we’ll now discuss the concept of the Shechina in various classical works and then from Ramchal’s perspective.

The term Shechina itself, which doesn’t appear anywhere in Tanach refers to “that which dwells,” and is derived from the verb shachen or shachan, “to dwell” or “reside”.

The impetus to provide a term for God’s presence — which is at bottom the meaning of Shechina — was the problem of just where to locate God. If He’s said to dwell in the Tabernacle or the Holy Temple (see Exodus 25:22, Leviticus 16:2, 2 Samuel 6:2, etc.) and to also be “the God of heaven” (Ezra 6:10, etc.), while it’s nonetheless true that “ the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3), then just where is He?

The answer of course is that all are true, but that’s not all a simple concept to get across, as His existing in lofty places seems befitting to His glorious being, while His dwelling in the muck and mire, if you will, seems to demean Him. Yet the latter allows for our coming in contact with Him in the sorts of ways we’d need to in order to worship Him and draw close to Him which are the bedrocks of the religious life. So let’s see how earlier sages dealt with his dilemma.

(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.

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”.

Imma overcame this with her “sweetness”, i.e., her ability to mitigate harsh judgments. For at one point, Zeir Anpin and Imma are said to have “married” [1] and to have come to work in tandem on various levels. As a result, Ramchal adds in his comments, though “Zeir Anpin is intrinsically aligned with (harsh) judgment, Imma granted it a share of her intrinsic power of mitigation” when they were combined, and Zeir Anpin became more sympathetic, so to speak [2].

And indeed when judgment subsides, “sorrow” passes and “brotherly love” comes into play after all, in potential [3]. In fact, that’s actually why Imma enters there, i.e., into Zeir Anpin in the world of Tikkun: in order to foster this sort of “brotherly love” among its Sephirot.

But didn’t we learn above that the source of the harsh makeup of Zeir Anpin is Imma’s own judgment element? What was it then in Imma that enabled it to be more sympathetic itself rather than harsh? Ramchal pointed out that it had been Imma’s five Gevurot that provided Zeir Anpin with its judgment aspect; thus it was Imma’s five Chassadim (kindness aspects) that granted Zeir Anpin its new kindness. For there are two “sides” — two poles — to Imma, as it has (five elements of) Chessed and (five of) Gevurah, as Ar”i points out [4].

Notes:

[1]       See Eitz Chaim, Sha’ar HaMochin ch. 1).

[2]       In his comments here Ramchal ties this in once again with the various mochin of Zeir Anpin, as when it’s “immature” and experiences what we’d term “small-mindedness” as opposed to when it’s “mature” and to experience “large-mindedness” so to speak. As he explains it there, “In the stage of immaturity, only the external aspect of this aspect of Imma is granted Zeir Anpin…. But as Zeir Anpin attains mental maturity, its (trait of harsh) judgment becomes more mitigated”. See note 7 above as well as Petachim 128-129.

[3]       See Petach 123 and Ramchal’s comments there as well as Klallim Rishonim 23.

[4]       See Eitz Chaim 9:1 for a discussion of the five gevurot and 5 chassadim.

(c) 2013 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 indicates at the beginning of Petach 52 that the source of the makeup of Zeir Anpin is in fact Imma’s Judgment element — her five Gevurot [1].

As we pointed out in our previous entry, the Partzuf of Zeir Anpin is the next-to-last one, lying below Erich Anpin, Abba, and Imma, and right atop Nukveh.

We’ll be discussing Zeir Anpin because its six component Sephirot (Chessed, Gevurah, Tipheret, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod) and Nukveh comprise the Partzuf-equivalent of the lower seven Sephirot under discussion.

His point here is that Zeir Anpin is rooted in Gevurah (harsh judgment). Let’s see what’s significant about that.

As he explains in his own comments here, “the whole thrust of Zeir Anpin is to govern according to (harsh) Judgment” [2]. “For while Erich Anpin governs through kindness and (it allows for) every aspect of mitigation by mitigating all judgments wherever they may be [3], Zeir Anpin is just the opposite”.

After all, we’re taught that God is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger — Erich Anpin in Aramaic — and abundant in loving kindness and truth, preserving loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and rebellion and sin” (Exodus 34:6-7).

Notes:

[1] For more on what’s depicted in Petach 52 see Iggerot Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 38, and Klallim Rishonim 15-16, 23.

[2] See Petach 53; Ma’amar HaVichuach 136; Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 83; Adir Bamarom pp. 28a, 92b; Zohar, Iddrah Rabbah, Parshat Naso 138b; Eitz Chaim, Sha’ar HaKavannot Yom HaKippurim 102b.

[3] See Iddrah Rabbah 129; Da’at Tevunot 154.

(c) 2013 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 indicates at the beginning of Petach 52 that the source of the makeup of Zeir Anpin is in fact Imma’s Judgment element — her five Gevurot.

As we pointed out in our previous entry, the Partzuf of Zeir Anpin is the next-to-last one, lying below Erich Anpin, Abba, and Imma, and right atop Nukveh.

We’ll be discussing Zeir Anpin because its six component Sephirot (Chessed, Gevurah, Tipheret, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod) and Nukveh comprise the Partzuf equivalent of the lower seven Sephirot under discussion.

His point here is that Zeir Anpin is rooted in Gevurah (harsh judgment). Let’s see what’s significant about that.

(c) 2013 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’s next point is that that’s in fact why the first three Sephirot continued to function and to endure during the course of the breaking of the vessels — the fact that they were above harm. Nevertheless, what exists in them, i.e., in those first three Sephirot, that serves the needs of the lower seven ones — i.e., the elements there that control the degree of “funding” that the lower seven would receive, as we depicted it above — wasn’t rectified, as we’d imagine they should have been.

For had that “funding gauge-system”, so to speak, been rectified and perfected, then all of the seven lower Sephirot would also have been rectified. But it wasn’t yet time for that; “it was (still) necessary for the breaking of the vessels to occur in the seven lower Sephirot” Ramchal explains in his notes here.

So those aspects of the first three Sephirot that relate to the seven lower ones became blemished rather than broken or rectified.  As Ramchal explains in his comments, the “hind-aspect” of the three higher Sephirot descended to the seven lower Sephirot of Atzilut. While that was certainly a blemish and a descent, it was still and all not a “fatal” one by any means, as at least they didn’t descend to Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah as their seven compatriots did in the course of the breaking of the vessels [1]. And that purposely stymied their ability to repair the seven lower ones [2].

For if they were able to repair those seven, then there’d be no harm anymore in the world whatsoever, which was not yet to happen (Petach 51).

The clear implication of this then is that even exalted phenomena must sometimes be stifled, if allowing them to be themselves in full would thwart God’s ultimate designs.

Notes:

[1]      See Eitz Chaim, Sha’ar Sh’virat HaKeilim Ch’s 1-2.

Reference to the “hind-aspect” as opposed to the “fore-aspect” descending, to a relatively minor descent within Atzilut as opposed to a true descent to Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah, and the like all falls under the rubric cited by the Leshem to the effect that “everything is to be judged on relative terms” (see Leshem, Sefer HaDeah 1:3:5 as well as very many other places in his works).

What it means is that everything is relative to everything else, and while Phenomenon A may have been bad in itself, in relation to Phenomenon B it wasn’t bad, and vice versa. In other words, things occur but they have different relative ramifications depending on their place, time, and relative stature.

[2]      Ramchal speaks of this as being an aspect of what’s termed “mochin d’katnut” (i.e., “reduced” or “immature” mind) which will be discussed below in Petach 127.

(c) 2013 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”.

Given the “removed” status of the first three Sephirot we see now why harm is irrelevant to them, i.e., why they didn’t experience the breaking process, since they’re beyond the reach of the effects of human actions that could conceivably undo them. Thus sins don’t harm them and can only “set them aside”, i.e., push them away out of danger during the course of the breaking of the vessels [1].

That’s why the first three Sephirot continued to function and to endure during the course of the breaking.

 Note:

[1]       See Eitz Chaim, Sha’ar HaMelachim 6.

(c) 2013 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”.