{"id":1016,"date":"2011-12-27T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2011-12-27T17:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=1016"},"modified":"2011-12-27T12:00:09","modified_gmt":"2011-12-27T17:00:09","slug":"adam-kadmon-inside-and-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/12\/27\/adam-kadmon-inside-and-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Kadmon inside and out"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ll begin this part with a statement from Ari about the seemingly out-and-out anthropomorphisms we\u2019ll be using to depict Adam Kadmon<\/em>. \u201cWe must speak in (anthropomorphic) metaphors and images in order to \u2018soothe the ear\u2019\u201d [1], i.e., to be able to cogently explain and illustrate things in an actually fully abstract realm.<\/p>\n

That having been said we need to know that everything: \u201chas two aspects: one is an expanding spiritual essence, and the other is the \u2018vessels\u2019 and \u2018limbs\u2019 into which this spiritual essence expands.\u201d But we must realize also that \u201cthere are roots above for these aspects\u201d, which is the actually the subject at hand.<\/p>\n

Leading up to our investigations we\u2019d put forward that Ari goes on to say that \u201cthere are four fundamental aspects to everything: sight, hearing, smell, and speech. These correspond to the four letters of God\u2019s name (spoken of before\u201d [2].<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s see what Ramchal offers about this last point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order for this order (i.e., Adam Kadmon<\/em>) to be perfect,\u201d he says, \u201cit needs to be a complete Partzuf<\/em> that\u2019s comprised of (both) an interior and an exterior, which is related to the mystical notions of a body and a soul, or \u2018lights\u2019 and \u2018receptacles\u2019\u201d (Iggerot Pitchei Chochma V\u2019Da\u2019at <\/em>3). Our discussion of that will comprise the essence of this next part.<\/p>\n

Ramchal then says the following in Petach <\/em>32:<\/p>\n

The \u201cface\u201d <\/strong>of Adam<\/em> Kadmon<\/em> was formulated to irradiate outward what was arranged within the \u201cbody\u201d <\/strong>of Adam<\/em> Kadmon<\/em> and which thus function as its interior parts. It was in fact Adam<\/em> Kadmon<\/em>\u2019s \u201csenses\u201d that irradiate outward. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, four worlds emerged: those of \u201cvision\u201d<\/strong> which is embodied in Adam Kadmon\u2019s \u201ceyes\u201d, \u201chearing\u201d <\/strong>which is embodied in Adam Kadmon\u2019s \u201cears\u201d, \u201csmell\u201d <\/strong>which is embodied in Adam Kadmon\u2019s \u201cnose\u201d and \u201cspeech\u201d <\/strong>which is embodied in Adam Kadmon\u2019s \u201cmouth\u201d. The \u201cforehead\u201d likewise emits radiance. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>We\u2019ll now explore the significance of all this.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See 3:4 and 6:6 above.<\/p>\n

[2] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From The Tree of Life<\/em> pp. 117-118 (with slight changes).<\/p>\n

(c) 2011 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman<\/p>\n

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org<\/a><\/p>\n

———————————————————-<\/p>\n

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here<\/a> at a discount.<\/p>\n

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here<\/a> at a discount as well.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).<\/p>\n

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence<\/a>\u201d and \u201cRamchal<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ll begin this part with a statement from Ari about the seemingly out-and-out anthropomorphisms we\u2019ll be using to depict Adam Kadmon. \u201cWe must speak in (anthropomorphic) metaphors and images in order to \u2018soothe the ear\u2019\u201d [1], i.e., to be able … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}