{"id":425,"date":"2011-02-15T11:05:51","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T15:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=425"},"modified":"2011-02-15T11:05:51","modified_gmt":"2011-02-15T15:05:51","slug":"adam-kadmons-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/02\/15\/adam-kadmons-message\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Kadmon\u2019s message"},"content":{"rendered":"

Along the same lines, many of the ancients spoke of the human form as the universal pattern, and of the universe thus being a single entity with many parts [1]. Perhaps the most beautiful depiction of the gist of that was Bachya Ibn Pakudah\u2019s when he said that if you \u201cobserve the world as a whole (you\u2019ll notice that) it emerges as a (single) complex composite of (many) parts, not even one of which is expendable. In fact, we experience it as a fully furnished house, with sky overhead as its roof, earth below as its bed, stars set about like lights, a variety of necessities stored away like buried treasure, with mankind in charge of it like a head of the house, making use of it all. There are all sorts of plants there for his sake and all kinds of animals for his use as well\u2026 The sun shines and sets to fix the course of day and night, it ascends and descends to furnish the world with heat and cold, so summer and winter can keep to their fixed and best courses without interruption\u2026 And the spheres rotate on course, stars and constellations move about in measured, even and immutable courses\u201d (Chovot<\/em> HaLevovot<\/em> 1:6).<\/p>\n

But these are obviously material (albeit cosmic) parallels to Ari\u2019s Adam Kadmon<\/em> which probably fed into and triggered his metaphysical understandings of it. Let\u2019s see now what Ramchal said about Adam Kadmon<\/em> aside from his key remarks cited in the body of Petach<\/em> 12 [2].<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything (in the universe) is part of a single phenomenon that\u2019s comprised of many elements\u201d which is Adam Kadmon<\/em>, he says; and he offers the following as proof-text, \u201cAs it\u2019s written: “Let us make (a) Man in our image, after our likeness\u2019 (Genesis 1:26)\u201d. He then intensifies that with the remark that \u201cthis likeness\u201d, Adam Kadmon<\/em>, \u201cincorporates all of the holy Forces\u201d which refers to all the Sephirot<\/em>, Olamot <\/em>(i.e., \u201cWorlds\u201d, to be explained below), and Partzufim<\/em> that Ari expands upon.<\/p>\n

Then he goes on to illustrate how Adam Kadmon<\/em> is comprised of many interconnected \u201cbody-parts\u201d, as we\u2019d cited before, by making use of their Partzuf<\/em> and Olam<\/em> (singular of Olamot<\/em>) elements. As he puts it, \u201cjust as each individual Partzuf<\/em> divides into 613 mystical lights which are its 613 \u2018limbs\u2019, the same is true of all of existence which is also comprised of 613 \u2018limbs\u2019, all of which constitute a single likeness. For even though each of the worlds is considered to be a world (unto itself), they\u2019re all only limbs of this overall likeness<\/em>. And all their connections and affiliations are (actually instances of) the connections and affiliations between these limbs\u201d. We\u2019ll explain the details cited here later on.<\/p>\n

The final element of his depictions of Adam Kadmon<\/em> is the fact that it\u2019s said to illustrate God\u2019s governance. We\u2019ll use this theme to address why Ramchal speaks of Adam Kadmon<\/em> here, so early on in Klach Pitchei Chochma<\/em>, when he delves into it at length later on — most obviously in Petachim<\/em> 31-35, which serves as a section unto itself that\u2019s entitled \u201cAdam Kadmon<\/em> and its Offshoots\u201d, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

As he puts it here, the various phenomena we see in the universe \u201caren\u2019t separate items created for all sorts of reasons. There\u2019s one single aim for everything\u201d, which is to \u201callude to (God\u2019s) governance\u201d, given that \u201ceverything that occurs in the universe is part of (this) governance\u201d. And he goes on to point out that aim of His governance is to <\/strong>bestow <\/strong>utter goodness <\/strong>upon creation, which is to say, to manifest His Yichud<\/em> as discussed earlier.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As such, it\u2019s clear that Ramchal\u2019s objective behind citing Adam Kadmon<\/em> here is to underscore his central theme, which, as stated in Petach<\/em> 12, is that the whole on-going process of <\/strong>(God\u2019s) governance<\/strong> (of the universe) \u2026 which the Emanator instituted <\/strong>was in fact instituted with the <\/strong>(singular) goal of bestowing utter goodness <\/strong>upon creation, which is the revelation of God\u2019s Yichud<\/em>.<\/p>\n

His main point then is that everything in the universe serves its purpose, and each and every thing will illustrate God\u2019s Yichud<\/em> and play a role in His intentions to bring the universe to perfection.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s also underscoring a couple of other very important things: first, the fact that while the many details of Adam<\/em> Kadmon<\/em> — the whole of reality — and its mechanics do indeed matter in our understanding of God\u2019s governance of the cosmos, at bottom what matters most is that we know that the whole of reality has one Divine goal which we\u2019re never to forget. Secondly, that there are only two beings at bottom: God and the universe; and that the two are constantly interacting.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Ibn Ezra\u2019s comments to Exodus 25:40, Kuzari<\/em> (4:3), <\/em>and Moreh Nevuchim<\/em> (1:72) for example.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All the citations here are from Ramchal\u2019s comments to Petach<\/em> 12.<\/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":"

Along the same lines, many of the ancients spoke of the human form as the universal pattern, and of the universe thus being a single entity with many parts [1]. Perhaps the most beautiful depiction of the gist of that … 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-425","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\/425","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=425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}