{"id":265,"date":"2010-12-27T06:09:10","date_gmt":"2010-12-27T10:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=265"},"modified":"2010-12-27T06:09:10","modified_gmt":"2010-12-27T10:09:10","slug":"angels-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2010\/12\/27\/angels-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels (3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now let\u2019s see how Ramchal depicts angels in his many of his works, Klach<\/em> included.<\/p>\n

At bottom he terms them \u201cGod\u2019s emissaries who bring all of His commands to fruition\u201d (Da\u2019at Tevunot <\/em>160; also see Derech Hashem <\/em>1:5:10, 2:5:3-4), but there are other things we\u2019d need to know about them for our purposes.<\/p>\n

We learn that while the actions of some angels are set, those of others vary widely according to circumstances (Pitchei Chochma v\u2019Da\u2019at <\/em>111) — either for good or bad. That\u2019s not to imply that angels can do bad things on their own, as they\u2019re too holy to have a yetzer<\/em> harah<\/em> (Ginzei Ramchal<\/em> p. 35). So while there are indeed \u201cangels of destruction\u201d (i.e., malevolent angels) (Derech Hashem <\/em>3:1:6) who do harm in the world, still and all angels cannot rebel against or countervail God\u2019s orders (Da\u2019at Tevunot <\/em>36).<\/p>\n

There are ten main species of angels (Pitchei Chochma v\u2019Da\u2019at <\/em>110) with many sub-species (Ibid. <\/em>108), and all of them occupy four \u201ccamps\u201d (Ibid. <\/em>111) [1]. \u00a0The lot of them are under the command of various \u201cPrinces\u201d (Ibid. <\/em>108-109) commonly termed Archangels. And we\u2019re told that they \u201cderive all of their satisfaction by what\u2019s bestowed upon them by and their attachment to their source\u201d in the upper worlds (Ginzei Ramchal<\/em> p. 132).<\/p>\n

That last point begins to explain their relationship to the Sephirot<\/em> (which is our actual subject at hand, remember). At bottom, the angels are products of and subsidiary to the Sephirot<\/em>. As Ramchal words it, \u201cThe illuminations (i.e., Sephirot<\/em>)\u2026. produce angels\u201d (Ginzei Ramchal<\/em> p. 131); and \u201cthe Sephirot<\/em> decree, and the angels carry those decrees out\u201d (Assarah Perakim<\/em> 9:1; also see Derech Hashem <\/em>1:5:10, 2:5:3-4 and Pitchei Chochma v\u2019Da\u2019at <\/em>125). He says much the same, though much more arcanely here in Klach<\/em> [2].<\/p>\n

What role do the constellations play in God’s governance then? We’ll soon see.<\/p>\n

——————————<\/p>\n

Note:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019ll need to present a Kabbalistic theme here which we\u2019ll go into great detail later on in order to offer more about them here: the idea of there being various spiritual realms or \u201cworlds\u201d (also termed \u201ccamps\u201d here). The Ari speaks of five of them, though we needn\u2019t be concerned about the terminology at this point, which in descending order are termed Adam Kadmon<\/em>, Atzilut<\/em>, Briah<\/em>, Yetzirah, <\/em>and Assiyah.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ramchal offers that three of the ten main species of angels are centered in Briah<\/em>, six in Yetzirah<\/em>, and the other species is in Assiyah<\/em> (Pitchei Chochma v\u2019Da\u2019at <\/em>108). And thus while angels are commonly said to be located in Yetzirah<\/em>, he maintains that while they\u2019re centered there,<\/em> they also touch upon Briah<\/em> and Assiyah<\/em> (Pitchei Chochma v\u2019Da\u2019at <\/em>104, 109).<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Angels are said to carry out the commands of the Shechina<\/em> (Petachim<\/em> 38 and 137; also see Da\u2019at Tevunot <\/em>160), which represents the last of the Sephirot<\/em>; and we\u2019re told that they \u201cderive their power from the illuminations\u201d, i.e., the Sephirot<\/em> (Petach <\/em>23).<\/p>\n

For further discussion of angels in Ramchal\u2019s works see Derech Hashem <\/em>2:5:3-4; 2:6:3; 3:1:6; 3:2:4, 7, 9; 4:4:1, 7, 11-12; and 4:8:5. Also see Da\u2019at<\/em> Tevunot<\/em> 115, 118, 160; Ginzei Ramchal pp. 27, 33, 35, 41, 131-132, 153, 277; Derech Eitz Chaim<\/em>; Messilat Yesharim<\/em> Ch. 6; and Adir Bamarom<\/em> pp. 2, 9, 111, 260.<\/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 let\u2019s see how Ramchal depicts angels in his many of his works, Klach included. At bottom he terms them \u201cGod\u2019s emissaries who bring all of His commands to fruition\u201d (Da\u2019at Tevunot 160; also see Derech Hashem 1:5:10, 2:5:3-4), but … 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-265","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\/265","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=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}