{"id":405,"date":"2011-02-08T10:26:11","date_gmt":"2011-02-08T14:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=405"},"modified":"2011-02-08T10:26:11","modified_gmt":"2011-02-08T14:26:11","slug":"it-aint-just-tzimtzum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/02\/08\/it-aint-just-tzimtzum\/","title":{"rendered":"It Ain\u2019t Just Tzimtzum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ramchal speaks to all of the above throughout Klach Pitchei Chochma<\/em> and in his other esoteric works as well, as one would expect. But he treats it rather peripherally in his more \u201cpopular\u201d works like Derech<\/em> Hashem<\/em> and Ma\u2019amar<\/em> HaIkkurim<\/em> [1]; whereas in Da\u2019at Tevunot<\/em> he couches it in terms of Creation<\/em> Ex Nihilo <\/em>[2] which the earlier sages spoke a lot about [3].<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a fundamental and vital difference though between the idea of Creation Ex Nihilo<\/em> and the Kabbalistic idea of Sephirot<\/em>, etc. Non-Kabbalists — Jewish and non-Jewish — argued from a perspective of everything arising anew out of sheer nothingness by Divine fiat from a God who was and is still very separate from it, whereas the Kabbalists argue that God Himself is the \u201cNo-thing\u201d from which creation emanated and that He is still connected to it.<\/p>\n

Returning to Ramchal\u2019s statement we find that he says at the very end of Da\u2019at Tevunot<\/em> (193-195) that when God created \u201cmaterial substance\u201d, which was \u201can utterly new phenomenon\u201d — that\u2019s to say that it\u2019s utterly unlike His own Being — He did it in a way that we simply cannot fathom. He\u2019s not arguing against Ari\u2019s depictions here so much as pointing out that while, like Ari, one can arrive at metaphors that serve to address the issues at hand, one cannot actually depict the process itself<\/em> since it occurred beyond space and time, and within God\u2019s very Being. The metaphoric or non-metaphoric nature of Ari\u2019s depictions proved to be a very controversial subject which we\u2019ll discuss in some detail later on in this section, but suffice it to say that it\u2019s easy to determine Ramchal\u2019s stance on that from this statement alone.<\/p>\n

In any event, the remark that sums up our concerns here reads, \u201cWhen (God) wanted to create material substance out of \u2018nothing\u2019 (i.e., out of His Being) He set up an utterly original system of emanation from His Being that was meant to allow for this material substance\u201d. And that \u201coriginal system\u201d alludes to Ari\u2019s entire depiction [4].<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll discuss Ramchal\u2019s portrayal of the Sephira<\/em> of Malchut<\/em> next.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He only addresses the process of creation in passing in Ma\u2019amar HaIkkurim<\/em> where he differentiates between God Himself, His \u201cTranscendent Forces\u201d (Nivdalim<\/em>, i.e., the Sephirot<\/em>, Partzufim<\/em>, etc.), and the various created entities that followed from angels and souls downwards. He offers much of the same, though in more detail, in Derech<\/em> Hashem<\/em>, where he likewise differentiates between all of that (see the first chapter; 1:5:1, 3-4) but see 2:5:1, 3, 6 where he addresses the issue of emanation which is to be discussed below.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That is, the creation of the universe \u201cout of the blue\u201d, i.e., out of sheer nothingness (but see Da\u2019at Tevunot<\/em> 80, near the beginning, for some allusion to the Ari\u2019s system).<\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Sa\u2019adiah Gaon\u2019s\u00a0Emunot v\u2019Deot<\/em> 1:1\u20132; Ibn Gabirol\u2019s Keter Malchut; <\/em>Rambam\u2019s Moreh Nevuchim<\/em> 2:22, 24-25; Crescas\u2019 Ohr Hashem<\/em> 3:1, 4\u20135; etc.<\/p>\n

[4]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As we\u2019ll see, Ramchal also discusses the rarely cited Creation Ex Nihilo<\/em> system known in Sefer<\/em> Yetzirah<\/em> as \u201cTsur<\/em> Tak<\/em>\u201d in Petach<\/em> 39 (in his comments there).<\/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":"

Ramchal speaks to all of the above throughout Klach Pitchei Chochma and in his other esoteric works as well, as one would expect. But he treats it rather peripherally in his more \u201cpopular\u201d works like Derech Hashem and Ma\u2019amar HaIkkurim … 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-405","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\/405","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=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}