{"id":1023,"date":"2012-01-03T11:12:49","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T16:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=1023"},"modified":"2012-01-03T11:12:49","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T16:12:49","slug":"world-upon-world-the-five-olamot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2012\/01\/03\/world-upon-world-the-five-olamot\/","title":{"rendered":"World Upon World: the Five Olamot"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re going to need to do some serious backtracking here and explain the whole notion of \u201cworlds\u201d, of which Adam<\/em> Kadmon<\/em> is the first of the five primary ones, if we\u2019re to understand what we\u2019re about to come upon.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve discussed the various \u201cworlds\u201d — Olamot<\/em>–before and will do so again [1], but for now consider these fundamental remarks about them by R\u2019 Ch. Vitale in Sha\u2019arei<\/em> Kiddusha<\/em> (3:1).<\/p>\n

He starts off with the notion that God \u201cemanated five \u2018worlds\u2019\u201d, with \u201ceach acting as a \u2018soul\u2019 to another\u201d which we\u2019ll explain below. The first is termed \u201cAdam Kadmon <\/em>which is mentioned in Tikkunei Zohar <\/em>[2] <\/em>and is referred to as the Tzachtzachot<\/em> (“the [realm of the] lucid and luminous lights\u201d) by the Gaonim [3]; the second is the world of Atzilut<\/em> (of Emanation [see Numbers 11:17 and Ecclesiastes 2:10]); the third is the world of Briah<\/em> (of Creation); the fourth is the world of Yetzirah <\/em>(of Formation); and the fifth is the world of Assiyah <\/em>(of Action)\u201d[4].<\/p>\n

R\u2019 Vitale remarks that \u201cthese five worlds are termed (i.e., they embody) a single Tetragrammaton\u201d (which has resonance with Ramchal\u2019s remarks in Petach 31<\/em>). And he indicates that \u201csince, due to its sublimity and to the fact that it\u2019s (only) represented by the \u2018tip\u2019 of the \u05d9 <\/strong>(as cited above, and as opposed to an entire letter, which further underscores its sublimity),\u2026 we (usually) only speak of the (other) four\u201d in our discussions.\u00a0 And he declares that the greatest of them, Adam Kadmon<\/em>, \u201cincorporates all of them and is … (their) root\u201d.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the worlds act as \u201csouls\u201d to one another, as cited above. \u201cThe higher world is engarbed in the lower one like a soul (could be said to be engarbed or ensconced) in a body\u201d. (A good analogy to this would be to the hand of the puppeteer that\u2019s ensconced in the puppet while animating it.) He adds that \u201cthis (formation) is true throughout and in every instance — including this lowly world\u201d which is also animated by a higher world, \u201cand the lot of them thus serve as garments to the Ein Sof<\/em> (which thus functions as) the Soul of all (other) souls\u201d.<\/p>\n

His final point, for our purposes, is the fact that \u201cjust as the Lights (i.e., Sephirot<\/em> in this statement but also applicable to Partzufim<\/em> or Olamot<\/em>) develop in descent formation (from highest to lower, to lower yet, and to lowest) and are each an amalgam of the rest of the ten Sephirot<\/em>, each individual Sephira<\/em> is likewise divisible by thousands and hundreds-of-thousands (i.e., by an infinite number of component parts)\u201d.<\/p>\n

At bottom, then, we\u2019re presented with five \u201cworlds\u201d, the first of which is often not discussed because it\u2019s so sublime, though it acts as the animating force behind the lot of them (and is itself animated by Ein Sof<\/em>), and which are all intimately interconnected by an infinite number of component parts and include this world which, while material, is rooted in sheer Godliness.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll next see how Ramchal understands this.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See note 48 to Section 3, and Petach<\/em> 38 below and elsewhere below.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Tikkunim <\/em>19, 70 as well as elsewhere there.<\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See the discussion in Pardes<\/em> 11:1.<\/p>\n

[4]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Isaiah 43:7 for reference to the last three.<\/p>\n

(c) 2012 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\u2019re going to need to do some serious backtracking here and explain the whole notion of \u201cworlds\u201d, of which Adam Kadmon is the first of the five primary ones, if we\u2019re to understand what we\u2019re about to come upon. We\u2019ve … 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-1023","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\/1023","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=1023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}