{"id":402,"date":"2011-02-07T06:35:14","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T10:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=402"},"modified":"2011-02-07T06:35:14","modified_gmt":"2011-02-07T10:35:14","slug":"tzimtzum-and-then-some","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/02\/07\/tzimtzum-and-then-some\/","title":{"rendered":"Tzimtzum and then some"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s how Ari depicted the \u201cbreak\u201d. (We\u2019ll backtrack and discuss Ramak then fast-forward to Ramchal after this for obvious reasons.) Based on deep reflections of the Zohar, most especially the Iddrot<\/em> and Sifre D\u2019Tzniuta<\/em> [1], on revelations granted him by Eliyahu<\/em> [2], on traditions he was privy to in Egypt before he came to Tzefat<\/em>, and on his own visions and keen discernment, Ari offered the following [3].<\/p>\n

God suddenly brought about a Tzimtzum<\/em> in His Being [4] which, if one may say as much, had His Being push itself aside (or conceal itself) to the sides of the center of His Being which then allowed room for the existence of empty space — space devoid of Him, whereas before all there was,<\/em> was Him. Understand of course that all of this, as well as what\u2019s soon to follow, is fraught with possible obfuscation and misinterpretation given that God doesn\u2019t occupy space, is unaffected by time and change, etc. But we\u2019ll go on.<\/p>\n

God allowed something of a residue of His Being to remain in the void, and also allocated a single beam of light to emit from His Being into the center of this void, which then formed ten concentric circles, Partzufim<\/em>, and a primal replication of the human figure known as Adam Kadmon <\/em>(\u201cPrimordial Man\u201d). \u201cLights\u201d then emitted from Adam Kadmon<\/em>\u2019s <\/em>countenance which then formed an entire realm that eventually lead to the formation of four primordial Worlds out of which devolved this physical world.<\/p>\n

Ramak, though, touched upon very little of this. He certainly allowed for the formation of Sephirot<\/em> and, unlike others before him, he even addressed Partzufim<\/em> in a later work [5], but he went no further [6]. That was said to be so because while the earlier Kabbalists only addressed \u201cThe World of Chaos\u201d (i.e., the anarchic non-perfected state of things) Ari addressed \u201cThe Rectified World\u201d [7].<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Iddrot<\/em> (\u201cThe Assemblies\u201d) are terse and pithy Zoharic statements of the makeup of the Upper Realms. Iddra Rabba<\/em> \u201cThe Greater Assembly\u201d) is found in Zohar 3, 127b-145; \u00a0Iddra Zutta<\/em> (\u201cThe Lesser Assembly\u201d) is in Zohar 3, 287b-296b; and Sifre deTzeniuta<\/em> (\u201cThe Book of Concealment\u201d) is in Zohar 2, 176b-179a.<\/p>\n

[2] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See R\u2019 Reuben Margoliot\u2019s discussion of that in Sha\u2019alot u\u2019Teshuvot \u00a0Min HaShamayim<\/em> pp. 36-41.<\/p>\n

[3] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019ll explain this all in more detail both later in this section and elsewhere in the book.<\/p>\n

[4] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This can legitimately be translated either as a \u201ccontraction\u201d or \u201cconcealment\u201d depending on your perspective as we\u2019ll explain.<\/p>\n

[5] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See his Elimah Rabbati<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[6]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thus while Ramak might be taken to have gone straight from God to the Sephirot<\/em> before touching on this world (though he really didn\u2019t, as we saw in the previous note), and Ramchal can be seen as doing that too, at least as far as our reading of Klach<\/em> goes for now, that too is really not true. Klach<\/em> is out of order, for several good reasons; Ramchal will certainly backtrack to discuss Ari\u2019s other themes — his own way.<\/p>\n

[7]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 R\u2019 Shimon Ashkenazi said this in his second introduction to Eitz Chaim<\/em> in the name of Ari himself.<\/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":"

Here\u2019s how Ari depicted the \u201cbreak\u201d. (We\u2019ll backtrack and discuss Ramak then fast-forward to Ramchal after this for obvious reasons.) Based on deep reflections of the Zohar, most especially the Iddrot and Sifre D\u2019Tzniuta [1], on revelations granted him by … 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-402","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\/402","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=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}