{"id":291,"date":"2011-01-02T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2011-01-02T12:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=291"},"modified":"2011-01-02T08:00:08","modified_gmt":"2011-01-02T12:00:08","slug":"constellations-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/01\/02\/constellations-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Constellations (3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first thing that becomes clear from his explanation of the constellations in Derech<\/em> Hashem<\/em> 2:7:1-4, where he lays out most of its main points, is that the subject of the constellations harkens back to a couple of vitally important themes in Klach<\/em> as well as in so much of Kabbalah and Jewish Thought in general — Divine Providence (hashgacha<\/em>) and Emanation (hashpa<\/em>). For when God governs He does so by means of both. Suffice it to say for our purposes now, though, that both come into play in Ramchal\u2019s understanding of the role of the constellations.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s follow his train of thought here because it will enable us to not only understand the constellations, but also the interplay between all the instruments of God\u2019s governance.<\/p>\n

Ramchal says that \u201ceverything material has its roots in the Supernal Forces (i.e., the Sephirot<\/em>)\u201d and that the process of bringing about material things and phenomena from such lofty spiritual sources has to follow a certain hierarchical order from highest up, to next highest, to lower, to lowest, by degrees. Only then can material things assume their proper form (Derech Hashem<\/em> 2:5:3).<\/p>\n

While we aren\u2019t privy to the reasons behind their \u201cquantity, quality, or component makeup\u201d, since \u201cthe Highest Wisdom (alone) determined that\u201d still and all we do have traditions about their makeup and function (Derech Hashem<\/em> 2:7:1) which we\u2019ll now explore.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(c) 2011 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 first thing that becomes clear from his explanation of the constellations in Derech Hashem 2:7:1-4, where he lays out most of its main points, is that the subject of the constellations harkens back to a couple of vitally important … 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-291","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\/291","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=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}