{"id":562,"date":"2011-04-04T10:52:38","date_gmt":"2011-04-04T14:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=562"},"modified":"2011-04-04T10:52:38","modified_gmt":"2011-04-04T14:52:38","slug":"what-we-may-and-may-not-discuss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/04\/04\/what-we-may-and-may-not-discuss\/","title":{"rendered":"What we can and cannot discuss"},"content":{"rendered":"

The next inquiry is into what we are able to discuss about Sephirot<\/em> and what not. \u201cIn short,\u201d Ramchal writes in his comments to Petach<\/em> 14, \u201cwe can\u2019t ask why the Sephirot<\/em> exist (as they do) and why they have this (particular) structure\u201d, as that\u2019s too close to the bone and is tantamount to peering behind the screen, which we simply can\u2019t do.<\/p>\n

Besides, he adds there, \u201cthere\u2019s no better reason than the fact that this is (simply) the way it is\u201d, period; \u201cthis is what\u2019s needed, no less and no more \u2026 to achieve (God\u2019s) intended goal of creation\u201d [1]. \u00a0For, that touches upon the makeup of the first Sephira<\/em>, Keter<\/em>, which we can\u2019t delve into since it\u2019s rooted in the Divine Will <\/strong>(Petach<\/em> 15). That\u2019s to say, it\u2019s \u201cattached to Ein Sof<\/em>\u201d (as Ramchal explains in his comments to there) which we haven\u2019t any access to, and whose reasoning we couldn\u2019t fathom anyway.<\/p>\n

But we are<\/em> to ask about and<\/strong> (try to) understand<\/strong> \u2026 the actions of the gradations and about how they function in the governance of the universe <\/strong>(Petach<\/em> 15), which is to say, the Sephira<\/em> of Chochma<\/em> and then on. <\/strong>As Chochma<\/em> is the point where \u201cthe thought (behind creation) divides things \u2026 in accordance with what has already been laid out\u201d in Keter<\/em>, and applies them to the governance of the universe (comment to Petach<\/em> 15). <\/strong><\/p>\n

Ramchal then completes the equation by saying there that the very next Sephira<\/em>, Binah<\/em>, \u201cis the \u2018disclosure\u2019 of Chochma<\/em>\u201d (i.e., it\u2019s more accessible to us than Chochma<\/em>), so we may inquire into it, \u201cand (the Partzuf<\/em> termed) Zeir<\/em> (or Zeir<\/em> Anpin<\/em>, which is a conglomerate of the six Sephirot<\/em> of Chessed<\/em>, Gevurah<\/em>, Tipheret<\/em>, Netzach<\/em>, Hod<\/em>, and Yesod<\/em>) and (the Partzuf<\/em> termed) Nukveh<\/em> (which is comprised of the Sephira<\/em> of Malchut<\/em>) which comprise the whole of (Divine) governance\u201d may all be inquired into as well.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Also see Ramchal\u2019s comments to Petach<\/em> 100 as well as his Peirush l\u2019Arimat Yadi B\u2019tzalutin<\/em>, Ma\u2019amar Harautin<\/em>, and Iggerot Pitchei Chochma v\u2019Da\u2019at<\/em> 6.<\/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 next inquiry is into what we are able to discuss about Sephirot and what not. \u201cIn short,\u201d Ramchal writes in his comments to Petach 14, \u201cwe can\u2019t ask why the Sephirot exist (as they do) and why they have … 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-562","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\/562","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=562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}