{"id":248,"date":"2010-12-22T06:36:26","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T10:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=248"},"modified":"2010-12-22T06:36:26","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T10:36:26","slug":"sephirot-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2010\/12\/22\/sephirot-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Sephirot (4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The best source for illustrations of basic Kabbalistic concepts is often the works of R\u2019 Moshe Cordovero, and that\u2019s certainly true when it comes to the Sephirot<\/em>. So let\u2019s draw now upon his depictions.<\/p>\n

He describes the Sephirot<\/em> as \u201cthe subtlest of things\u201d (Pardes<\/em> 4:7) that function as God\u2019s \u201cworkman\u2019s tools\u201d (Pardes<\/em> 4:1) if you will, and also filter His unbearably glorious presence, given that \u201cthe (various supernal and mundane) worlds couldn\u2019t bear God\u2019s abundance without the (mediation of the) Sephirot<\/em>, so lofty is He\u201d (Pardes<\/em> 4:5). The ten of them are all interconnected, much \u201clike sparks that emit from burning coal; for just as no one can imagine sparks existing without burning coals, as the two must exist at the same time, so too are the various Sephirot<\/em> all interdependent\u201d (Pardes<\/em> 4:5).<\/p>\n

And as to the question of how all the many changes in the Sephirot<\/em> don\u2019t indicate a change in God Himself who dwells in their midst, he compares it to the situation of \u201cwater running through variously colored vessels \u2026 For even though the water itself is colorless, nevertheless when it runs through the vessels the water assumes the colors of the vessel it\u2019s running through\u201d. That\u2019s to say that God\u2019s presence is of one sort and unchanging; the Sephirot<\/em> that express His presence and will change in many ways, to be sure, but that says nothing of God\u2019s unchanging presence — any apparent change there is \u201cin the eye of the beholder rather than intrinsic to the water\u201d, i.e., to God\u2019s own presence (Pardes<\/em> 4:4) [1].<\/p>\n

——————————————————–<\/p>\n

Note:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0Like R\u2019 Cordovero, R\u2019 Azriel (in his commentary to Sefer Yetzirah<\/em>, p. 27b) and R\u2019 Menahem Recanti (in \u1e6ca’amei<\/em> HaMitzvot<\/em>) considered the Sephirot<\/em> <\/strong>to be utterly separate from God\u2019s Being. But the anonymous author of Ma\u2019arechet Elokut<\/em> (p. 8b) took them to be parts of His Being. The Ari contends, however, that both views are correct, depending on circumstances (Eitz<\/em> Chaim<\/em> 1:3, 40:8, 47:1).<\/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":"

The best source for illustrations of basic Kabbalistic concepts is often the works of R\u2019 Moshe Cordovero, and that\u2019s certainly true when it comes to the Sephirot. So let\u2019s draw now upon his depictions. He describes the Sephirot as \u201cthe … 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-248","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\/248","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=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}