Ramchal

הכוונה התכליתית בכל ענין הספירות והנהגותיהם הוא להיטיב בסוף הכל הטבה גמורה ושלמה.

רק שכדי לבוא אל התכלית הזה, צריך להתגלגל עד שנגיע אל הסוף, שיהיה העולם מתנהג במשפט, ולהעניש החייבים, עד שעל ידי זה תהיה אחר כך ההטבה שלמה.

הרי שמן הכוונה התכליתית עצמה יוצא המשפט הצריך, קודם שמגיעים אל הסוף. ואף על פי שנראה שהם דברים הפכיים. וזהו ענין א”א וז”א – שהא”א בסוד ההטבה הגמורה, שאינו כי אם מיטיב. ואף על פי כן ממנו יוצא ז”א, שהוא בסוד המשפט, כי הוא נולד מענינו ממש:

The ultimate goal of the entire order of the Sephirot and their governance is to ultimately bestow utter and perfect beneficence.

It’s just that in order to reach this ultimate goal it’s necessary to first go through the entire required cycle until we reach the end. Thus, the universe must first be governed with justice and sinners must be punished in order for complete beneficence to eventually be bestowed.

Thus, the justice that must exist before the end is a consequence of the ultimate goal itself, even though the two seem to contradict each other. This then is the whole matter of Erich Anpin and Zeir Anpin: Erich Anpin represents the mystical notion of utter beneficence which only bestows goodness, yet Zeir Anpin which represents the mystical notion of justice must emit from it. For Zeir Anpin is truly a product of Erich Anpin‘s makeup.

(c) 2015 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”.

שתי בחינות יש בא”א, אחת – הנהגתו בחסד לגמרי מעצמו, ואחת – הנהגתו על ידי ענפיו בדרך משפט, עד שיחזור הכל לענינו ממש בסוף הכל:

There are two aspects of Erich Anpin. One is the way it governs with complete Chessed by itself, i.e., without its offshoots. And the other is the way it governs with its offshoots, i.e. the four Partzufim of Atzilut, through Mishpat, which will continue until everything will ultimately return to the essential nature of Erich Anpin, i.e., pure Chessed.

(c) 2015 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”.

אריך אנפין הוא הפרצוף הראשון שבאצילות, בנוי ממ”ה וב”ן. והוא שורש לכל שאר האצייית, שכולם ענפים ממנו ממש, והוא פועל פעולותיו על ידיהם:

Erich Anpin is the first Partzuf in the world of Atzilut and is comprised of different combinations of MaH and BaN.

It is the root of the rest of Atzilut, as they, i.e., all of the other Partzufim below Erich Anpin, are truly offshoots of Erich Anpin which acts through them.

(c) 2015 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”.

Section 16 is entitled Partzuf Erich Anpin and it’s comprised of Petachim 90-95. We’ll start off by offering each Petach in translation then go on to explain the entire section.

(c) 2015 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 discussed Radlah in a number of other works, mostly expanding on its complex and esoteric Kabbalistic implications. At one point, though, he discussed it philosophically, and we’ll end this section by concentrating on that here.

He spoke of two different Divine systems of governance in place in the cosmos: one based on reward and punishment (i.e., a linear, nearly arithmetic system within which one act results in reward while another results in punishment) and the other based on a far less cut-and-dry system termed mazal.

Mazal here doesn’t refer to “luck” or “chance” as it’s usually taken to, or even to the influence of the constellations (which are themselves termed mazalot [1]). He uses the term as an expression for the unreadable, uncanny, ineffable, unpredictable, non-linear affecting factors in one’s life and in the cosmos at large — the sorts of surprising anomalies we’ve been speaking about displayed in Radlah and which are subsequently played-out in our down-to-earth realm [2].

He offers that absolutely everything that happens in the cosmos — and in our own personal experience — feeds into the ultimate Tikkun. It’s just that some people and things arrive at that with a happy profusion of “light and (manifest) goodness” while others must regrettably experience “tribulation, suffering, and concealment (of light)”.

His ultimate point is that none of this determined by one’s merits or demerits or his character failings or strengths. it’s all rooted in the needs of ultimate Tikkun at that point.

The bottom line is that all of these occurrences play themselves out in the interactions between MaH and BaN, and they’re rooted in unfathomable Radlah [3].

Footnotes:

[1]         See 2:4 above, and note 18 there where we hearken to this point in Klach.

[2]         See his discussion of this in Clallim Rishonim 34; also see Da’at Tevunot 167-160.

[3]         This also touches upon Theodicy, discussed in 14:4 above.

(c) 2015 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’s the wording in the Petach again: While “The Crystalline Dew” presents all of the colors together, just as crystals do when light strikes them, Radlah presents itself otherwise: as one thing in one instance and then immediately afterwards as its opposite.       

This statement comes to differentiate Radlah from Erich Anpin, the next Partzuf down, as we’d indicated. For, Ari in fact locates The Crystalline Dew within one of the highest reaches of Erich Anpin [1]. The point of the matter is that while all of the lights in Erich Anpin illuminate distinctly and clearly, that’s not the case with the lights of Radlah — they reveal a light as this at one point and as that at another, as we’d seen.

The simple explanation is that the higher up one goes in the chain of revelation, the hazier and more inscrutable the distinctions between the parts,  and the lower down on goes, the clearer they are. So while those in Radlah aren’t the most arcane and can be distinguished to some degree, though in confounding ways, they’re nonetheless less clear and distinct than the lights below them in Erich Anpin and downward.

Here’s how Ramchal goes on to underscore the confounding nature of Radlah‘s lights in the rest of the Petach. In fact, he says, though it stays in this transformative state in which an instances of ”yes” and one of “no” i.e., one thing and its opposite,  appear at the same time, we simply can’t grasp how both a “yes” and the “no” could exist at the same time. That is, we simply can’t understand how it seems to be an instance of “yes” and then immediately afterwards it seems not to be that at all.

Footnote:

[1]         See Eitz Chaim, Sha’ar haClallim 2 and Pri Eitz Chaim, Sha’ar Selichot 8.

(c) 2015 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 Petach begins with the statement that there’s a difference between “The Crystalline Dew” cited in Zohar 3, 128a — which characterizes it there as an entity “in which all colors can be seen” — and Radlah. And here’s how they’re different: while “The Crystalline Dew” presents all of the colors together, Radlah presents itself as one thing in one instance and then it immediately presents itself as its opposite.      

We’ll have to refer to Ari’s references to this to understand what Ramchal is saying.

(c) 2015 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 final Petach to this section, Petach 89, serves as a segue to the next one which focuses on the Partzuf known as Erich Anpin. It contrasts a characteristic that Radlah and Erich Anpin would seem to have in common but which actually proves to be different in each, the sorts of “colors” emitted within each.

The Zohar speaks of a phenomenon known as “Tal b’Bedolcha” — a crystalline dew — in the arcane section of it known as Iddrah Rabbah (Zohar 3, 128a).

The dew is taken from the following sequence cited there in the Zohar. The Jewish Nation was complaining to Moshe about the lack of food, so God said, “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. (So) speak to them, saying, ‘In the afternoon you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be full with bread, and you know that I am God the Lord’.” And indeed, “It came to pass in the evening that quails went up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. The layer of dew went up, and behold, on the surface of the desert, a fine, bare (substance) as fine as frost on the ground” which referred to the manna that they ate in the desert (Exodus 16: 12-14).

And the crystalline aspect of it refers to the verse cited there that reads,” Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance was like the appearance of crystal” (Numbers 11:7).

Dew is thus a manifestation of God’s beneficence, and its crystalline character represents its multi-fadedness — of taste in the case of manna, and of color in the case of an actual crystal which reflects all colors.

(c) 2015 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”.

Petach 88 essentially reiterates what we’d said above. It explains that Radlah is a single emanation which nonetheless contains all the aforementioned combinations of MaH and BaN. Yet it’s an emanation that’s impossible to grasp or understand. Looking at it has us perceive all sorts of anomalies, because it doesn’t seem right for it to contain all those sorts of combinations of MaH and BaN, but that’s because it’s an emanation that’s simply impossible to fully and logically understand.

As Ramchal explains in his comments, “We (really) shouldn’t say that there are anomalies (there, which would indicate contradictions) — in fact all of the combinations exist there”.

In truth, we can’t see what’s in it: sometimes a certain combination seems to be there and at other times another one that may even be its opposite seems to be. Thus even though we know it contains all the various combinations of MaH and BaN, the emanation itself exists in a way that’s impossible to understand, since it first appears one way and then another. So at bottom we really can’t understand the rules of Divine governance on this level.

For if we were to try to follow something below this level in Atzilut then try to follow its root in Radlah, we “wouldn’t be able to find our arms and legs”, i.e., we couldn’t establish where we were standing, since we couldn’t judge anything about it. For, first it looks like this and then it looks like that, making it utterly impossible to understand. That’s in fact why Radlah is called the “Unfathomable Beginning”.

(c) 2015 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”.

While we know this all to be true, yet no one can understand or grasp anything other than what’s revealed in the order and rules visible in the Partzufim. Nonetheless the source of the matter actually lies in the combinations of MaH and BaN found in the unfathomable Radlah which are not at all revealed or known.

(c) 2015 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”.