{"id":302,"date":"2011-01-04T05:33:14","date_gmt":"2011-01-04T09:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=302"},"modified":"2011-01-04T05:33:14","modified_gmt":"2011-01-04T09:33:14","slug":"the-whole-kit-and-kaboodle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/01\/04\/the-whole-kit-and-kaboodle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Whole Kit and Kaboodle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first thing to point out in fact is that there are higher<\/em> forces than the constellations and angels in the governing process, but that\u2019s beside our point here [1].\u00a0 In any event, it\u2019s taught that the Sephirot<\/em> are closest to the Source of all three, and then come the angels followed by the constellations.<\/p>\n

In terms of the five spiritual \u201cworlds\u201d spoken of above, according to the Ari the most sublime world of all, Atzilut,<\/em> is the realm of the Sephirot<\/em>; the less sublime world of Briah<\/em> is the realm of the higher angels known as Seraphim<\/em>; the even less sublime world of Yetzirah<\/em> is the realm of the class of\u00a0 lower angels termed Michael<\/em>, Gabriel<\/em>, Uriel<\/em>, Raphael<\/em>, and Metatron<\/em>; and the lowest world of Assiyah<\/em> is the realm of the constellations (R\u2019 Chaim Vital\u2019s Sha\u2019arei Kedusha<\/em> 3).<\/p>\n

And as Ramchal depicts it, \u201cThe Supernal Forces (i.e., the Sephirot<\/em>) \u2026 are closest in proximity to the Shechina<\/em> (i.e., God\u2019s Presence) which always hovers over them\u2026. And the angels (beneath them) are the spiritual beings that were created to carry out whatever God wishes in the world\u2026.\u00a0 (But know that) there is nothing in the lower world \u2026 that hasn\u2019t a corresponding element up above in the Supernal Forces; likewise, there is nothing below that hasn\u2019t angels assigned to it that govern it and bring about various phenomena and circumstances that God decreed. The phenomena that the Supernal Forces manifest are termed \u2018emanations\u2019.\u00a0 Now, all emanations that pass from up above down below pass through the constellations. As such, the constellations are the \u2018emanators\u2019 that are in closest proximity to the lower phenomena, but their emanations only manifest themselves according to what proceeds up above\u201d (Ma\u2019amar HaIkkurim<\/em>, \u201cBeRuchni\u2019im<\/em>\u201d) [2].<\/p>\n

Having gone through all of this it\u2019s now time to discuss Ramchal\u2019s own understanding of the makeup and function of the Sephirot<\/em>, to be followed by an analysis of Petachim<\/em> 5 and 6 which comprise this second section of Klach<\/em>.<\/p>\n

—————————————————-<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Petachim<\/em> 18, 31; Tikkunim Chaddashim <\/em>39; and Adir Bamarom<\/em> 2, p. 93.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See the end of Ramban\u2019s introduction to his commentary on The Book of Job for a discussion of the relationship between angels, constellations, \u201csatan\u201d (who is an angel, at bottom), and more.<\/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 to point out in fact is that there are higher forces than the constellations and angels in the governing process, but that\u2019s beside our point here [1].\u00a0 In any event, it\u2019s taught that the Sephirot are closest … 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-302","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\/302","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=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}