Ramchal

Ramchal provides us with this fine encapsulation of the whole concept of the letters and Divine names in Adir Bamarom (p. 160), where he says that “the twenty-two letters (of the Aleph–Bet) are the root of all of created phenomenon. The point is that the letters are the various elemental lights which bring about all created entities when those letters are combined and permutated in various ways. This is the matter of the two-hundred and thirty-one Aleph-Bet groups”. This last point alludes to the 231 possible two (non-identical) letter combinations generated by the 22 letters of the Aleph–Bet which is cited in Sefer Yetzirah.

He offers another element: the fact that “each and every letter is comprised of different (pictorial) elements which are themselves letters. (So for example, the letter) א (is made up of the letters) ‘, ו, and ‘ (as we cited above); (the letter) ב (is comprised of) three ו’s, and the like”.  Thus, each letter also serves as a combination of letters which all factor into the mix.

Moving on to the Diviner names, he says there that “the bases of the makeup of the letters are the four letters of God’s name (י-ה-ו-ה)”. For, “there are two fundamental elements of the lights: points and surfaces”, which is to say that lights — i.e., the letters — are either one, two, or three (or more) dimensional. The letter י, for example, is considered to be a “point” relative to the other letters, while ה is multi-dimensional, and ו is considered a two-dimensional letter. All of these figure into the ability of the twenty-letters to interface with these four more basic letters of God’s name.

This concludes Section Five. I’m going to break-off for a while to review this section on my own, then we’ll move on to Section Six, “ The Tzimtzum and Kav” which is comprised of Petachim 24-30.

(c) 2011 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”.

His Derech HaChochma is dedicated to explaining the advantages to studying the various corners of Torah over other scholarly concerns, and it lays out a Torah curriculum of sorts. And another hardly-known book, Derech Tevunot, explicates many of the complications of Talmudic language and logic.

But Ramchal then gets rather rhapsodic about the Torah at a number of points elsewhere. He characterizes it, for example, as “truly one single light that was granted to Israel to bask in”, as “a holy thing that exists in the very highest heights”; as such “when someone engages in it below its light beams upon his soul so as to have it reach the most hidden-away heights, God’s own hidden realm”  (Derech Eitz Chaim). He offers that the mystical implications of the Torah is encapsulated by the notion of “the roots (i.e., the higher realms) providing the needs of the branches (i.e., the lower realms)”, given that “everything is in it”. He contends that it enables us to “eradicate the filth of the snake” given that it has the “power to purify” (Kinat Hashem Tz’vaot). He terms Torah “eternal life” and assures us that it embodies the “mystery of Tikkun (personal and universal rectification and perfection) and the soul’s (ultimate) reward” (Adir Bamarom pp. 109, 111-112), and reveals that it’s “rooted in the very roots of the Sephirot” (Ibid. p. 333) and it’s infinite (Ibid. p. 279).

(c) 2011 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”.

Ramchal  speaks outright of the makeup of the Torah in Ma’amar HaIkurrim, Derech Hashem, in his lesser-known Derech Chochma, and in Da’at Tevunot, and more esoterically elsewhere.

He focuses on the makeup and structure of the Oral Torah in Ma’amar HaIkurrim where he addresses the need God perceived there to be to conceal things in His Written Torah which would then be revealed at length in His Oral Torah in various ways. And he then discussed the various allusions contained in the former which were fleshed out by the latter, both ritual and theological, and the Rabbinic enactments derived from them.

He makes the points in Derech Hashem that Torah study is the single best way for one to draw him- or herself close to God as well as the world at large (1:4:9); he discusses the ways that the Torah acts as a guide to determining God’s will for us at any one moment (4:2:1); and he asserts that it is God’s predominant agent for allowing His emanations to affect this world to various degrees, depending upon one’s character, demeanor and intentions when delving into it (4:2:2-7).

Well see what he offers in Derech Chochma and Da’at Tevunot next time.

(c) 2011 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”.

See Ramchal’s Iggerot Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at (7) and Klallei Ma’amar HaChochma (13) for more on the esoteric side of letters and their relationship to the various Divine names.

Ramchal ends this section with the assertion in Petach 23 that the (Divine) names … enable the Lights to bring about actions in the physical world; and he then adds the idea that the Torah encompasses all those names that went into actualizing things in this world, which is why it’s referred to as God’s “tool” for creation [1].

We’ll next see what Ramchal says about the Torah in general in other writings.

Note:

[1]       See the beginning of Breishit Rabbah.

(c) 2011 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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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”.

AV, SaG, MaH, and BaN will be discussed at length below in Petach 33 especially, which is dedicated to it, as well as in Petachim 55-57. They’re also discussed in Eitz Chaim (Gate 5) and in numerous places in Zohar and Tikkunei Zohar.

Other Divine names are discussed in various traditional sources: the twelve and forty-two letter names, for example, are cited in the Talmud in Kiddushin 71 and Yoma 39b, as well as in Tikkunei Zohar 19a, in Pardes 21:12. And see Ba’al HaTurim to Numbers 11:16 where he cites God’s seventy names.

(c) 2011 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 Kabbalists pointed out that most of the letters of the Tetragrammaton (י-ה-ו-ה) can be spelled out in various ways. While the letter י is only spelled out as יו”ד, the letter ה can be spelled out as either ה”י, as ה”ה, or as ה”א ; while the letter ו could be spelled out as וי”ו, as וא”ו, or as ו”ו . In modern terms, that implies that the elements that go into the basic structure of everything can be further divided into different sub-elements, thus affecting the final outcomes in subtle or broad ways. They thus derived that there are four combinations in all: the aforementioned AV, SaG, MaH, and BaN.

The name AV refers to the letters ע and ב, which are written ע”ב in combination (hence “AV”) and have the numerical value of 72. It represents the Tetragrammaton written out as follows:  יו”ד ה”י וי”ו ה”י י-ה-ו-ה which has that numerical value.

The name SaG refers to the letters ס and ג, which are written ס”ג in combination (hence “SaG”) and have the numerical value of 63. It represents the Tetragrammaton written out as follows:  יו”ד ה”י וא”ו ה”י which has that numerical value.

The name MaH refers to the letters מ and ה, which are written   מ”ה in combination (hence “MaH”) and have the numerical value of 45. It represents the Tetragrammaton written out as follows:  יו”ד ה”א וא”ו ה”א which has that numerical value.

And the name BaN refers to the letters בand ן, which are written ב”ן in combination (hence “BaN”) and have the numerical value of 52. It represents the Tetragrammaton written out as follows:  יו”ד ה”ה ו”ו ה”ה which has that numerical value.

(c) 2011 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”.

Let’s return now to his statement in Petach 22 that the entire range of functions of the Sephirot is governed by the order of the ten Sephirot, which is itself contained within the order of the four letters of God’s Name, and which is also the order that governs the trope, vowels, “crowns” and letters through the mystical import of those four letters as well as the four names contained in each individual name.

As he explains in his comments there, “the four letters of God’s name (י-ה-ו-ה) incorporate all ten Sephirot, according to the mystical import of their essential division (which is) into the five Partzufim (Erech Anpin, Abba, Imma, Zeir Anpin, and Nukva).”

The first question is, how could the four lettered name of God represent five Partzufim? As he explains it, “the pointed (upper) end of the Yud (where the quill first touches the parchment in the process of setting down the letter) is (equivalent to Partzuf) Erech Anpin; (the body of) the Yud (i.e., which is fleshed out) is (equivalent to Partzuf) Abba; the (first) Heh (in its entirety) is (equivalent to Partzuf) Imma; the Vav (in its entirety) is (equivalent to Partzuf) Zeir Anpin; and the (second) Heh (also in its entirety) is (equivalent to Partzuf) Nukva” [1].

He then offers that the trope, vowels, and “crowns” likewise fall under the mystical import of those four letters in their own way. And the same is true of what he here terms “the four names”. These aren’t Divine names discussed just above, nor are they the attributes we also discussed; Ramchal explains them to refer to the “names” AV, SaG, MaH, and BaN. These are more like nick-names than actual appellations, if you will: acronyms formed from the various numerical equivalents of the Tetragrammaton, as we’ll see.

Note:

[1]       See 4:1,5 above.

(c) 2011 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”.

Ramchal discusses Divine names in Derech Hashem, too, though in a whole other context. He addresses the issue of “Theurgy” there –our drawing upon the power inherent in Divine names in order to consciously affect changes in the world, or to draw close to God (3:2:6-7). That’s done by either inscribing specific names onto parchment in the form of kamayot (amulets) or by reciting those names (though Ramchal doesn’t discuss kamayot). He assures us that there are specific rules involved in this as well as of the fact that being capable of it doesn’t enable one to do the impossible (3:2:2). But the point remains that this is a force to be reckoned with. This ability enables its practitioner to “bend” nature, if you will, or to bypass it to one degree or another (3:2:5). Ramchal takes pains, though, to underscore that this ability emanates from God, from His intentions for world, and from the mechanisms that He Himself set in place (3:2:6), and that’s its success often depends on the righteousness of the person utilizing it (3:2:7).

In fact, Ramchal addressed this issue in his comments to Petach 23 where he says that “all actions depend on the (power inherent in and the recitation of the) many Divine names to come about … (specifically) by the various combinations and admixtures of lights (that come into play through those names). And it is from them that the angels receive (their tasks and abilities)”.

(c) 2011 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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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 a statement by Ramak, by the way, that ties the Sephirot in with the Divine names, most especially to the Tetragrammaton. He remarks that “the Sephirot are (embodied in) the ten (Divine) names that (are actual names rather than depictions, and as such deserve special treatment, so they) may not be erased. (In fact,)t he names and the Sephirot are one and the same, as the spirituality (i.e., the spiritual content) of the names are literally the Sephirot … The aforementioned names are Courtyards (i.e., entranceways) to the spirituality of the Sephirot, and that spirituality is a garment (i.e., a container for) the inner spirituality alluded to by the Tetragrammaton that’s found in each and every Sephira” (Pardes 1:10).

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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”.

Petach 22 expands upon the whole idea of the Aleph–Bet and the Hebrew words that result from them by tying them in to God’s various names (as we suggested above), most especially His ineffable four-letter name and its permutations, and by connecting them to the Sephirot.

As Ramchal words it there, the entire range of functions of the Sephirot is governed by the order of the ten Sephirot, which is (itself contained within) the order of the four letters of God’s Name (Yud, Heh,Vav, and Heh). This is (also) the order that governs the trope, vowels, “crowns” and letters (spoken of above) through the mystical import of those four letters as well as the four names contained in each individual name.

So, what we’ll do here is first cite Ramchal’s ideas about Divine Names exoterically; we’ll then turn back to the above statement and see what Ramchal adds to it in his own comments to Petach 22 where it originates; and we’ll then see what he says about the whole of it exoterically in other works.

He points out in Da’at Tevunot 80 that “the One and only God in all His perfection cannot be named or termed anything, since we can’t grasp His (i.e., Him in His state of) perfection, and it’s impossible to name something you can’t grasp given that a name is the named-object’s definition and one can’t name for something he can’t grasp”. Yet, as we all know, God is called by various names in Tanach and throughout the tradition; how do we explain that? It’s rooted in the fact that the prophets (including and epitomized by Moshe) recognized God as exhibiting certain specific traits in His interactions with the world “such as mercy, sovereignty, power, justice, compassion, anger, strength, and the like”. Based on this we refer to God — despite His unfathomable makeup and our inability to name Him — as “’The Merciful One ’, ‘The Ruler’, ‘The Mighty One’, ‘The Judge’, etc.” And Ramchal goes on by implication to apply those names to the terms for and functions of the Sephirot [1]. There are other names for God, too (including more “name-like” names like the Tetragramaton and the like), that have nothing to do with this phenomenon, though, some of which are actually acronyms of certain phenomenon in the Divine Presence as we’ll see soon. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Note:

[1] The whole of R’ Gikatilia’s Sha’arei Orah is a treatment of this.

(c) 2011 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”.