Ramchal

This next section is referred to as an analysis of “The First Three and Seven Lower (Sephirot) of Nikkudim”, and it’s comprised of Petachim 51-53.

As usual, we’ll begin with a translation of the relevant Petachim and go on from there.

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This all-encompassing mass, i.e., the world of Nikkudim, had to be divided up into its component parts of Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah, and then there initially came to be the basic foundation which is called Atzilut with its three garments. Afterwards, control was passed to each garment unto itself, which were then called the worlds of Briah, Yetzirah and Assiyah.

For Atzilut when fully repaired is the root of everything, while Briah, Yetzirah and Assiyah serve to bring forth the offshoots of Atzilut. Each one, i.e. Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah,eventually brings forth its own distinct offshoot, but they’re all merely offshoots of what already existed in Atzilut (Petach 40).

At bottom we’d say that the world of Nikkudim was like a single mass out of which all the details, i.e., Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah, had to come about; as all of existence — both above and below — is a single phenomenon comprised of many details waiting to come about. But this phenomenon is only comprehensive when all of its details function together (Petach 39) [1].

He then goes into great detail about the final rectification and the roles of these worlds in all that.

In order to actually bring rah about before it would be done in the end, these “garments”, i.e., the worlds of Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah had to provide a place for rah to exist. That was accomplished by the selection and gradation that took place among them, until only the very last level — Malchut of Assiyah — was left to produce wrong. The three worlds of Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah will then become the four worlds of Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah, that is, when Malchut of Assiyah becomes a new Assiyah, Assiyah becomes Yetzirah, Yetzirah becomes Briah, and Briah becomes Atzilut. Wrong will then be rectified and revert to goodness, things will revert to what they’d been at first, and there will no longer a need for wrong to exist in actuality, as it will enough for it to have once existed and to have then been rectified.

Then the new Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah will revert to Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah, and the Malchut of Assiyah will become integrated with its whole, i.e., with the world of Yetzirah that would then exist, and the original exalted Atzilut of the general Nikkudim that was removed in the course of the “breaking of the vessels” will be revealed. The “garments” will then remain the root of the wrong that once existed but was rectified and reverted to goodness. Ein Sof will then be said to have completed His task, and He will be exalted unto Himself in His sovereignty (Petach 49) [2].

Ramchal then offers this encapsulating detail in his comments there: “we can thus refer to everything that exists from the world of Nikkudim on down as a single phenomenon which the various levels that we’ll discuss below are nothing but parts of…. (but which are all) necessary in order for the Divine Yichud to be revealed”. That’s to say that everything — heavenly and more earthly — is a part of the single great celestial method of evidencing God’s supreme sovereignty, which is the point of it all [3].

Notes:

[1]       See Petachim 44, 46, 47, 49 for more on the “garments” and Atzilut.

[2]      See Ramchal’s exposition of this in his comments here where he offers, among other remarks, that “What happened when the vessels broke is that they fell down to Briah, Yetzirah and Assiyah, which afterwards became (the combination of) Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah. They were thus missing the true Atzilut, which existed before the vessels broke and which will be revealed in the future. If so, these worlds must then all go back to being (the combination of) Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah in relation to the true Atzilut that will then be revealed”.

Also see there, “The distinguishing feature of what happens at the time of the repair is that it comes to rectify everything that became damaged at the time of the breaking of the vessels, which was as follows. First, the original Atzilut became concealed. Second, its garments descended to (the combination of) Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah which turned into (the combination of) Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah. This resulted in the last part of Malchut of Assiyah being left to produce rah…. And third, all of the garments remained flawed because of their role in the production of rah”.

[3]       See Petachim 48-50 and 97.

This completes Section Eight

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(This entry follows this one.)

In total, Ramchal goes on to say, the seemingly four separate worlds of Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah that comprise the world of Nikkudim are actually one world which is over-covered with three “garments”, given that Atzilut is only complete in its functions with these “garments” (Petach 38).

As Ramchal explains in his own comments here, in our experience, “garments are what cover the body after it’s already complete (i.e., after it’s set in place and operating). A covering (like a garment) isn’t a part of the body at all (i.e., it’s merely an accoutrement). (In fact,) there can be many garments, one on top of the other, and not one of them adds anything new to the body.” Well, “the same is true of Briah, Yetzirah and Assiyah in relation to Atzilut. For as we already know, the governing process is brought to completion in Atzilut” and the other worlds are merely accoutrements to it, so to speak.

That’s not to say that Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah are meaningless: they clearly aren’t, since “each provides a separate division of creations. Briah provides souls and Yetzirah provides angels, while Assiyah provides the material entities”, as he adds there and is widely known. And besides, “Atzilut is unable to carry out even what specifically relates to it except if it’s clothed in Briah, Yetzirah and Assiyah”.

But the difference is as follows: when we examine these “garments” of Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah individually, we find that each one is itself termed a world unto itself, since each one of them serves a unique function as we saw above. That’s why when we consider Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah along with Atzilut altogether, then Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah are only considered Atzilut’s “garments”, yet when they’re considered in light of their functions, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah are termed and taken to be separate worlds (Petach 38).

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

Some of the things we’d need to made clear here that touch upon the worlds of Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah which is the subject at hand is the sequence from the World of Tohu (i.e., chaos) [1], to the World of Tikkun (i.e., rectification), to the eventual final Tikkun.

The Bahir (2) asks what the Torah meant when it said that “The world was Tohu and Bohu” (Genesis 1:2) [2] at creation, seeming to imply that it had already been so? It explains that to mean that in fact “the world was originally (in a state of) Tohu until it turned to (one of) Bohu” referring to the initial Tohu phenomenon of the Breaking of the Vessels which was then followed by the initial Tikkun.  Let’s trace this.

As we’d explained here, there was a shattering of the last seven of the original ten vessels which couldn’t endure the breaking-through of the effulgent light (see Eitz Chaim 8:1) [3]. That was the World of Tohu, exemplified by the chaotic upsetting of the design of things.

That chaos was largely rectified by God Himself, with the act of the creation of this world, when a balanced triad system of left, right, and center poles within Partzuf-complexes collaborated with each other, and corrected and compensated for each other [4]. What was rectified there, though, was nearly undone by the actions associated with the eating from the Tree of Knowledge (and later on by actions associated with the Golden Calf), but the ultimate and utter rectification will come about when humankind does what it must do to bring that about [5].

Notes:

[1]       This is also known as the World of Nikkudim, which is the subject of this section.

[2]       I.e., “chaotic then defined” according to the Bahir, though the expression is usually translated as “formless and empty”.

[3]       This was likewise termed “The Death of the Kings of Edom” (see here; see Otzrot Chaim, Sha’ar Rapach Netzutzin 1).

[4]       See here. Also see Pardes 4:6, Tikkunei Zohar p. 17a, Eitz Chaim from Gate 8 onward, and the rest of Klach Pitchei Chochma.

[5]       See here.

(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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

The first point Ramchal makes here is that the world of Nikkudim — which is the subject at hand — came about when the world of Atzilut with all its offshoots i.e., the worlds of Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah, were fashioned successively much the way a craftsman produces something (literally, “a vessel”) out of what’s at first an amorphous piece of wood which proves to be something orderly and beautiful when completed (Petach 36).

It’s vitally important to know about this realm because “it is the true root of everything in the lower realms, which did not exist until we reached this level” (Ramchal’s comments here). His overriding point here, though, aside from introducing the various elements involved, is that God formed these worlds successively and in an orderly way, as that is the way He interacts with the universe, as we’ve seen [1].

Note:

[1]       See 4:2 where we cited this quote from elsewhere in this work: “The very first thing to know about (God’s) governance is that it’s dependent upon sequence, which is the first principle God wanted” to exist in the universe (comments to Petach 30),

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

As we’d seen earlier (see note 33 to Sec. 7 above), Ramchal explains Ar”i layout of the worlds of Akudim, Nikkudim, and Verudim which we’ve been involved in as follows.

In the 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.

And 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. So we’ll concern ourselves here at the end of this section with the formation of Atzilut and its associated worlds.

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The rest of this section touches on the other major Kabbalistic concern here: the creation of the worlds of Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah. But let’s retrace our steps now and see some of what we’d learned so far in this section.

After spending some time discussing other things that Klach does (see the précis here), we began to discuss the major Kabbalistic themes expanded on in this section. We began with the classical explanations of the Breaking of the Vessels (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), going on to offer Ramchal’s own (here, here, here, here, and here).

Then we went on to speak of the repair that took place for the meanwhile (here). We come now to the formation of those other worlds.

(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
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Let’s finally see the points Ramchal makes here, in Klach, about Resurrection of the Dead and the World to Come and tie them in with what’s been said above. Before can do that, though, we’d need to backtrack a bit.

Ramchal said in Petach 27 that everything that was to exist in the world has its roots in the Trace of God’s presence that He’d allowed to enter into the Residue-realm that is our world; and he offered there that God interacts with phenomena that are rooted in the Trace the way a soul governs a body.

That’s to say that the Line which enters into and governs the Trace-realm is analogous to the soul that enters into and governs the body. Recall the fact that the World to Come is characterized as the realm in which body, which had been resurrected, and the soul will be rejoined and you’ll understand his point.

Moving on to Adam and Eve in his recounting of the story of the universe, Ramchal says in Petach 41 of our section that “If Adam had not sinned, then his body would have been pure and it would have been instantaneously rectified (and he and the universe would immediately have entered into the World to Come). But, since he did sin, impurity came to reside in man’s body, so the soul (i.e., souls in general) can’t join with (bodies) in a perfect bond. On the contrary, the soul must leave the body at death”, and they must both await the resurrection and the World to Come.

He goes on to say there that “the body is then alone (i.e., at death, without the soul) when it expunges out all the wrong in it”. That’s to say that the body is cleansed of all of its impurities in death, and that’s the way that death serves to further along God’s agenda.

But understand that “this will take place (i.e., the full benefit of death will only take place) with the resurrection of the dead, when the body will be rebuilt. The soul will then (re)enter and remain in the body without a blemish forever… until it will ascend to the highest level suited to it” finally, in the World to Come.

His ultimate point here then is the fact that “all this is found (i.e., is also played out) above in the (realm of the) Line and the Trace” as we’ll now see. For,” before the Line could be joined with the Trace in a (way) … that would cause everything to go in one direction (i.e., in the direction of ultimate perfection), the Trace had to be allowed to do everything in its power” much the way the body had to be free enough to possibly sin.

But in the end “the Line will then join with the Trace-realm in a complete bond as when the Line first entered into it, and just as it shone before the breaking of the vessels”. That’s to say that the much like soul first entered the body, which then sinned, died, was purified, and is to be rejoined with the soul in the World to Come, “so (too) will it shine afterwards with their rectification… until everything will be completely purified.”

Thus rather than go into details about the makeup of the resurrection and the World to Come as traditional sources do; and rather than discuss them in terms of one’s personal recompense and the makeup of the ultimate reality as he does in his other works, Ramchal uses them both in Klach to draw an analogy between an individual’s “big picture” and the universe’s own “big picture”, as we alluded to above.

For just as the universe was comprised of a physical aspect (the Residue) and a soul (the Line), sinned and had to die and decompose (the breaking of the vessels) so as to eventually reach true perfection (with the rejoining of Trace and Line), likewise is the self comprised of a body and soul, which must be separated at death then be rejoined at the resurrection so as to reach the World to Come.

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Ramchal speaks of the World to Come in two ways over-all in his other works: as a recompense for one’s spiritual and ethical efforts [1], and as a wholly different reality that’s God, soul, and spirit centered rather than material and body centered [2].

Notes:

[1]       See this from Messilat Yesharim (Ch. 1). “Our sages of blessed memory have taught us that we were created to delight in God and enjoy the radiance of His Divine presence. This is the true delight, the greatest enjoyment of all.  But in truth, the place for this pleasure is the World to Come, as it was created, readied and prepared for just such a pleasure”….. “Many teachings of our sages can be found in this same vein, likening this world to a place and time of preparation, and the next world to one of rest and the ingesting of the already-prepared. This is what they meant by ‘This world is like a vestibule …’ (Pirkei Avot 4:16); Today (was created) to do them (the mitzvot); tomorrow to receive the reward for them’ (Eruvin 22a); ‘One who struggles on the Eve of the Shabbat will eat on Shabbat’ (Avodah Zara 3a); and, ‘This world is like the shoreline, and the World to Come is like the sea’(Kohelet Rabbah 1), as well as by many other expressions like them”.

Also see Ch. 4 there, as well as Derech Hashem 1:3:4; 2:2:1; and 2:4:6 (for Non-Jews there); Ma’amar HaIkurim, HaGemul; Da’at Tevunot 24; and “Da’at Tevunot 2” 44 (found in Ginzei Ramchal p. 50)

[2]       See Derech Hashem 1:3:4; 1:3:9; 2:2:2; and 2:8:4; Da’at Tevunot 124; and Klallim Rishonim 34.

(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
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Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.

The Zohar doesn’t go to any great length to depict the World to Come, given its nature. But like so many other things purely spiritual in nature, the World to Come is also compared to light there.

In fact, the light that will be displayed there (i.e., that is its essence) will be so vast and so mighty that “no created being could (be expected to) endure it” (1, p. 265a). It’s said that while the light there will be “1/60,075^th of the light that shines in God’s presence”, still in all it’s so vast that “the light of the sun is 1/60,075^th” of its capacity (Zohar Chadash, Breishit 20a). That degree of light and enlightenment goes a long way to explain the statement that the righteous would “see God there” (1, p. 135a), given their experience.

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