{"id":1262,"date":"2012-07-01T09:56:10","date_gmt":"2012-07-01T13:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=1262"},"modified":"2012-07-01T09:56:10","modified_gmt":"2012-07-01T13:56:10","slug":"the-story-of-the-breaking-of-the-vessels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2012\/07\/01\/the-story-of-the-breaking-of-the-vessels\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story of The Breaking of the Vessels"},"content":{"rendered":"

At one point R\u2019 Chaim Vitale uncharacteristically presented the story behind the story — the circumstances under which Ar\u201di divulged the notion of \u201cThe Breaking of the Vessels\u201d that underlies this entire section and is the second most important theme in Kabbalah behind the formation of the Tzimtzum<\/em>. Vitale writes in his journal [1] that in the course of the evening of a certain Rosh<\/em> Chodesh<\/em> — a new month, when the moon is scant and the night is dark and star-lit — that Ar\u201di lead his disciples outdoors with torch in hand. (It\u2019s of course clear to the astute reader that the idea of Ar\u201di leading his disciples through the darkness with his own light is utterly apropos, but that\u2019s not the point here.)<\/p>\n

They soon reached their destination, the gravesite of R\u2019 Shimon bar Yochei. Ar\u201di began to pray fervently, as did the others, and seemed to be quaking and swooning in a sea of starlight. They eventually finished and were surrounded by as vast a wall of silence as the air right before creation. Came midnight and Ar\u201di began to divulge the secret of how the frail and arcane vessels broke apart, spilled the sparks of light they\u2019d held, and how that we\u2019ve been called upon to rectify all that.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/div>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The journal was subsequently published as Sefer<\/em> HaChazayonot<\/em> (The Book of Visions<\/em>), which is actually a journal or diary in which Vitale recorded his celestial visions as well as his metaphysical encounters, revelations, and the like.<\/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":"

At one point R\u2019 Chaim Vitale uncharacteristically presented the story behind the story — the circumstances under which Ar\u201di divulged the notion of \u201cThe Breaking of the Vessels\u201d that underlies this entire section and is the second most important theme … 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-1262","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\/1262","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=1262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}