Tag Archives: theology

Along other lines, we’re taught that there are two overarching forms of interaction: attraction and repulsion or, in Kabbalistic terminology, Chessed (kindness) and Gevurah (judgment). There are very many points in between, of course, which are all brought about through the “middle pillar” that lies between these two extreme poles, but that will be explained at another point.

In any event, were told that “by its nature, Chessed is like a welcoming right arm” that reaches out to embrace. “So when it reigns” at any given point in the world, “created beings behave toward each another fraternally and smile at each other”, literally and figuratively. Contrarily, by its nature “Gevurah distains and rejects”, so when it reigns at any given point, “faces express anger, and everything is weighed down with sadness”, literally and figuratively, Ramchal says in his comments to Petach 52.

As such, as he expresses it in Petach 52 itself, because of its, i.e., judgment’s, makeup each light, i.e., each of the six Sephirot of Chessed, Gevurah, Tipheret, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod, came to exist separately rather than together with the others. For by nature judgment doesn’t exhibit “brotherly love” but rather “sorrow” and “severity” so to speak, and is thus inclined toward encouraging separateness rather than unity.

The point of the matter is that separateness, distain, rejection and the like would have held sway over the world, but they didn’t, thanks to Imma as we’ll see.

(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”.

While Erich Anpin governs through kindness and allows for mitigation, “mitigation can be removed from Zeir Anpin”, our subject of concern, “leaving (harsh) judgment in (its stead, and in) full force, which can (even) cause total devastation, God forbid”.

The point of the matter here is that this judgment-aspect of Zeir Anpin derives from Imma and its own judgment-aspects specifically. And that’s because while “the root of judgments lies above (Imma), it isn’t clearly discernible there, given that kindness holds sway there“. It’s just that “when it reaches (the) Yesod (aspect) of Imma, it reaches a level where it can be revealed’’.

That’s to say that Zeir Anpin’s judgment derives from a very high point, but it only becomes manifest from a lower point — from Imma (“even though Imma isn’t intrinsically connected to judgment” Ramchal adds in his comments) — because that’s the point at which it can manifest itself.

It’s clear then that while harsh judgment (and rah, its this-word “partner-in-crime” one might say) doesn’t manifest itself in the higher reaches, it’s still and all derived from there and expresses itself here. It’s thus analogous to the way lower emotions express themselves in the body while originating in the mind: as when anger, for example, expresses itself in pursed lips, squinted eyes, dilated nostrils and the like, while actually being rooted in one’s thoughts and attitudes.

(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”.