{"id":318,"date":"2011-01-10T11:59:06","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T15:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=318"},"modified":"2011-01-10T11:59:06","modified_gmt":"2011-01-10T15:59:06","slug":"ramchal-on-emanations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/01\/10\/ramchal-on-emanations\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramchal on Emanations"},"content":{"rendered":"

He actually says quite a lot about emanation and its cohort Divine Providence throughout the second section of Derech Hashem<\/em>. He speaks there of it occurring on various levels, and of this-world versus other-worldly applications of it (including its role in reincarnation); the place of reward and punishment, human responsibility and potential, Divine Justice, the Jewish Nation, and of Adam and Eve as well as other early Biblical personalities in it; the mechanics of it and its non-human participants; the place of God\u2019s Yichud<\/em> in the process; human history in light of Divine Providence and the emanation process; and more.<\/p>\n

In short it comes down to the fact that while \u201cit\u2019s God alone who maintains the existence of all of creation, both at large and in particular [1]\u2026. (yet) there many and various sorts of emanators\u201d (Derech Hashem<\/em> 3:2:5) [2].<\/p>\n

While many are aware of the place of the angels and constellations in the process, as we laid out above, not many are aware of the role of the Torah. \u00a0As Ramchal puts it, \u201cthe greatest emanator of all and the one with the loftiest and most valuable makeup \u2026 which God apportioned from His own Glory \u2026 is the Torah\u201d (Derech Hashem<\/em> 4:2:2) [3]. We won\u2019t delve into the particulars here about this important albeit mystifying statement other than to offer that on one level it simply alludes to the power inherent in our Torah-study and Torah-sanctioned actions to change God\u2019s reactions to us and thus change the course of history, but a lot more could be said about it [4].<\/p>\n

We\u2019re also taught that God\u2019s emanations vary from person to person, moment by moment, and day by day (Petach<\/em> 138; Da\u2019at Tevunot<\/em> 160, 174), and that they largely depend on our actions (Da\u2019at Tevunot<\/em> 130, 168). At bottom, though, \u201cAll of God\u2019s emanations \u2026 are rooted in and dependent upon His Yichud <\/em>\u2026 so as to bring (everything) to true perfection\u201d (Derech Hashem<\/em> 4:4:7) [5].<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll begin our actual discussion of Petachim<\/em> 5 and 6 next time.<\/p>\n

———————<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0See Da\u2019at Tevunot<\/em> 116, Midrash Tehillim<\/em> 119: 89.<\/p>\n

[2] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Also see Derech Hashem<\/em> 2:5:3, 2:6:2, 3:2:1, 4:6:10; and Da\u2019at Tevunot<\/em> 156, 158.<\/p>\n

[3] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As it\u2019s written, \u201cGod peered into the Torah to create the world\u201d (Breishit Rabbah 1:2). Also see Adir Bamarom<\/em> pp. 110-111.<\/p>\n

[4] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is partially based on the sublime source of the Torah; after all, the quote just above refers to the Torah as an entity \u201cwhich God apportioned from His own Glory<\/em>\u201d. Also see Petach<\/em> 30 below, and R\u2019 Chaim Volozhin\u2019s statement in Nephesh HaChaim<\/em> (4:10).<\/p>\n

[5] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Also see Da\u2019at Tevunot<\/em> 116.<\/p>\n

See Klalei Pitcha HaChochma<\/em> v\u2019Da\u2019at<\/em> 6 on the process itself; and see Petachim<\/em> 72, 73, 125 for more esoteric references to it. <\/em><\/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":"

He actually says quite a lot about emanation and its cohort Divine Providence throughout the second section of Derech Hashem. He speaks there of it occurring on various levels, and of this-world versus other-worldly applications of it (including its role … 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-318","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\/318","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=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}