{"id":587,"date":"2011-04-28T09:50:34","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T13:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=587"},"modified":"2011-04-28T09:50:34","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T13:50:34","slug":"sefer-bahir-on-all-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/04\/28\/sefer-bahir-on-all-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Sefer Bahir on all this"},"content":{"rendered":"

After discussing the descent of the Sephirot<\/em> from Ein Sof<\/em> at length, Sefer Bahir<\/em> (171) then raises a question about ascending or \u201cbackward\u201d turning lights, as if we\u2019d just naturally expect to find such things.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe (now) know about (lights that descend) from up above down below,\u201d the disciples point out, \u201cbut we don\u2019t (yet) know about (lights that ascend) from down below up above\u201d.<\/p>\n

The source of the notion is apparently the verse from Ezekiel\u2019s vision that speaks of \u201cthe Chayot <\/em>(as having) darted to and fro like flashes of lightning\u201d (1:14) which Ramchal himself refers to in his comments to this Petach<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s pointed out next in Sefer Bahir<\/em> that while the Sephirot<\/em> would naturally be assumed to descend rapidly, backward-turning light Sephirot<\/em> would be assumed to move more slowly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAscending can\u2019t be the same as descending\u201d the disciples point out. For, \u201cone could run while descending, but he can\u2019t do that while ascending\u201d.<\/p>\n

This observation is apparently accepted outright since it isn\u2019t responded to, assumedly because it\u2019s a foregone conclusion. But as we\u2019ll see, this point has a number of ethical and spiritual implications otherwise it wouldn\u2019t make sense given that the Sephirot <\/em>aren\u2019t physical and thus needn\u2019t be affected by traction or by having to resist the pull of gravity.<\/p>\n

Sefer Bahir<\/em> then finishes its explanation of the layout there in the name of R\u2019 Yochanan (see 135) with the statement that \u201cjust as the Shechina<\/em> is below, it\u2019s likewise above\u201d as it \u201csurrounds everything\u201d; after all, isn\u2019t it written \u201cThe whole world is full of His Glory\u201d (Isaiah 6:3)? And it offers that the Shechina<\/em> is there \u201cin order to support and sustain them\u201d.<\/p>\n

First off, the use of the term \u201cShechina<\/em>\u201d here is awkward-sounding to us and exceptional, so it either refers to the Ein <\/em>Sof<\/em> (and should thus be translated \u201cDivine Presence\u201d, as R\u2019 Aryeh Kaplan does in his work), or it refers to Malchut<\/em>, which it often does in Zohar and in many other places, and it speaks to the fact that Keter<\/em> comes to be Malchut<\/em> and vice versa as cited above.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll expand upon the all-encompassing nature of Ein Sof<\/em> later on in various contexts as we go along.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see what Ramak says about this all.<\/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>\u00a0at 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":"

After discussing the descent of the Sephirot from Ein Sof at length, Sefer Bahir (171) then raises a question about ascending or \u201cbackward\u201d turning lights, as if we\u2019d just naturally expect to find such things. \u201cWe (now) know about (lights … 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-587","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\/587","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=587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}