{"id":176,"date":"2010-12-01T07:06:21","date_gmt":"2010-12-01T11:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=176"},"modified":"2010-12-01T07:06:21","modified_gmt":"2010-12-01T11:06:21","slug":"yichud-continued-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2010\/12\/01\/yichud-continued-4\/","title":{"rendered":"“Yichud” continued (4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now, the notion that God\u2019s Yichud<\/em> is \u201cthe underlying truth\u201d behind everything as noted above touches upon some very profound phenomena — including the fact that all of creation will implode upon itself once His Yichud<\/em> will be revealed. It\u2019s not laid out in Klach<\/em> itself, though it\u2019s alluded to here, yet it is stated outright in some of Ramchal\u2019s lesser-known works.<\/p>\n

As Ramchal puts it in Sod<\/em> HaYichud<\/em> [1], \u201cGod was as perfect (from the first) as He is now and as He will be in the World to Come without any change<\/em> (in between). It\u2019s just that His perfection wasn\u2019t actually made manifest at first, while it will be later on\u201d.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s to say that God stands apart from space and time as an inherently existent, independent, perfect entity, who has been so from before space and time came about, who remains so in the course of space and time, and who will continue to be so after space and time will cease to exist [2].<\/p>\n

Ramchal then offers that \u201csince God wanted this manifestation to come about, there are thus three matters (under discussion when it comes to God\u2019s Yichud<\/em>): a Beginning, End, and Middle. \u2018Beginning\u2019 refers to (that epoch in which) His original perfection was there in a state of potentiality (i.e., what we might term \u201cThe Deep Past\u201d); \u2018End\u2019 refers to (that epoch in which) His perfection will actually be made manifest (i.e., what we might term \u201cThe Deep Future\u201d); and \u2018Middle\u2019 refers to (that epoch) before His perfection is to be made manifest\u201d (i.e.., what we might term \u201cThe Deep Present\u201d).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to understand that one of Ramchal\u2019s points here is that what we refer to as \u201cDeep Past\u201d and \u201cDeep Future\u201d are nearly identical in that they\u2019re both comprised of pure Godliness, but that \u201cDeep Past\u201d will only be truly synonymous with \u201cDeep Future\u201d later on, after the great Tikkun<\/em> spoken of next comes about.<\/p>\n

For as Ramchal then adds, \u201cthe (eventual all-encompassing) Tikkun<\/em> will ultimately involve the attaching of the lower and higher (realms, worlds, beings, phenomena) to each other, after which everything will be attached to God, and it will be said that everything is one<\/em>. That will entail the perfection of the Middle and the conjoining of the Beginning and End\u201d.<\/p>\n

Thus, God\u2019s Yichud<\/em> is also the experience of the ultimate conjugation — Yichud<\/em> — of Creator and created; the moment when \u201ceverything will return to its Source\u201d including \u201call of the Sephirot<\/em>\u201d (Iggerot Pitchei Chochma v\u2019Da\u2019at <\/em>p. 404) [3].<\/p>\n

As Ramchal rightly offers there, this concept \u201cthis isn\u2019t grasped all that well in our day and age\u201d. In fact, few speak of it at all [4] and many would deny it because of its implications. But Ramchal clearly regarded it as an essential albeit esoteric phenomenon to know about God, creation, and about the relationship between the two.<\/p>\n

————————————————————–<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The complete essay is contained in Ginzei<\/em> Ramchal<\/em> pp. 264-271.<\/p>\n

[2] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Also see Ramchal\u2019s Ma\u2019amar<\/em> Reisha<\/em> v\u2019Sofa<\/em> (found in Adir<\/em> BaMarom<\/em> 2, pp. 35-60) and his Peirush<\/em> Ma\u2019amar<\/em> Arimat<\/em> Yadi<\/em> (Ibid. pp. 61-92) for his discussion of everything returning to pure <\/em>Godliness.<\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is Ramchal actually referring to \u201cGod Himself\u201d here or to \u201cGod\u2019s Will\u201d as referred to in section 2? It seems this is<\/em> an allusion to God Himself. See R\u2019 Shriki\u2019s Introduction to Siddur<\/em> HaRamchal<\/em> (p. 31, end of note 25) where he points out that even the original primordial Tzimtzum <\/em>will <\/em>be <\/em>undone then! See Shriki\u2019s citation of a statement in R\u2019 Moshe Cordevera\u2019s HaPardes<\/em> 11:6 on p. 31 note 29 there. And also see Klach<\/em> 27 p. 155 which speaks of the Tzimtzum<\/em> as the hiding of God\u2019s Yichud<\/em> thus implying that it will be undone once God\u2019s Yichud<\/em> is no longer hidden, also implying that we are referring to God Himself when we discuss His Yichud<\/em> in this context.<\/p>\n

[4] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Though see R\u2019 Yehudah Ashlag\u2019s treatment of it in his Introduction to the Zohar<\/em>, and The Leshem<\/em> at various points (as well as Cordevera, as cited in the note). See the statement made at the end of the R\u2019 Friedlander\u2019s Introduction to his edition of Klach (p. 37 in the Western pagination) that Ramchal derived this notion from the teachings of the Brit<\/em> Menuchah<\/em> rather than that of the Ari (who post-dated the Brit<\/em> Menuchah<\/em> but regarded the latter as truly inspired and legitimate). While we can\u2019t attest to that and have found no other reference to it elsewhere, it would explain Ramchal\u2019s statement that \u201cthis isn\u2019t grasped all that well in our day and age\u201d which is highly influenced by the teachings of the Ari.<\/p>\n

(c) 2010 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":"

Now, the notion that God\u2019s Yichud is \u201cthe underlying truth\u201d behind everything as noted above touches upon some very profound phenomena — including the fact that all of creation will implode upon itself once His Yichud will be revealed. It\u2019s … 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-176","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\/176","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=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}