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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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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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