{"id":614,"date":"2011-05-08T17:15:27","date_gmt":"2011-05-08T21:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=614"},"modified":"2011-05-08T17:15:27","modified_gmt":"2011-05-08T21:15:27","slug":"ramchal-on-all-this-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/05\/08\/ramchal-on-all-this-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramchal on all this (3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s one final theme to touch on in this Petach<\/em>, found at its end. It reads (with corrections):<\/p>\n

The<\/strong> second sort <\/strong>(of \u201cforward\u201d and \u201cbackward\u201d movement of the light) is<\/strong> (rooted in the fact) that a light doesn\u2019t achieve its purpose until it emerges from its Source and then returns to it. That\u2019s to say,<\/strong> (until) the light descends vigorously to the bottom <\/strong>(of the \u201cempty space\u201d) and then ascends <\/strong>(back to Ein<\/em> Sof<\/em>), and until it leaves something of itself behind when it ascends. That<\/strong> portion <\/strong>(left behind) then remains behind in the structure, and that <\/strong>(process) holds true throughout the structure.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Ramchal explains the difference between the two sorts of \u201cforward\u201d and \u201cbackward\u201d movements of the light in his own comments here. While the first sort discussed above \u201cis on-going\u201d, the second kind \u201chas to do with how the lights emanate from each other\u201d in order, and it\u2019s as simple as that.<\/p>\n

And he offers there that the latter sort comes to illustrate that \u201cwhat moves \u2018forward\u2019 is the actual light of Ein<\/em> Sof<\/em>\u201d, and that after it returns to its Source, the light that\u2019s then formed in the process \u201ctakes on an existence of its own\u201d and \u201cremains behind\u201d as a sort of independent remnant of the original.<\/p>\n

In Adir Bamarom<\/em> (1, p. 351), though, Ramchal explains the second sort of back and forth movement differently. He says that the light being spoken of here as \u201cemerging from its Source\u201d is the Kav<\/em>, which we\u2019d cited before and will explain in detail later on. In short, it\u2019s a thin, long \u201cline\u201d of Godliness which re-enters the \u201cempty space\u201d left by the Tzimtzum<\/em> in the process of creation. It then is what initiates the whole \u201cforward\u201d, downward movement of Sephirot<\/em>. It descends vigorously to the bottom <\/strong>(of the \u201cempty space\u201d) and then ascends <\/strong>to return <\/strong>to its Source.<\/p>\n

But the process doesn\u2019t happen in one fell swoop but rather by degrees, and the Kav<\/em> doesn\u2019t work alone. Instead, the Kav<\/em> mixes in with the Reshimu<\/em> (which we\u2019d also cited and will explain in more detail later on) in order to initiate the Sephirot<\/em>. In short, the Reshimu<\/em> is the \u201cremnant\u201d of Godliness left behind in the \u201cempty space\u201d (which is why it isn\u2019t actually empty). It\u2019s alluded to by the idea here of a portion <\/strong>(left behind) then remains behind in the structure. <\/strong><\/p>\n

His point then is that the Kav<\/em> and Reshimu<\/em> in tandem interact on a \u201cforward\u201d and \u201cbackward\u201d level in their role in the formation of the Sephirot<\/em> which reduplicate that process, though in different ways.<\/p>\n

Over all, then, Ramchal has managed to turn an abstract depiction of the machinations of the Sephirot<\/em> at the very beginning of creation to an ongoing mystical process of change, adjustment, interaction within and between all parts of the metaphysical realm leading to ultimate perfection.<\/p>\n

This then completes Section Four of Klach Pitchei Chochma<\/em>.<\/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":"

There\u2019s one final theme to touch on in this Petach, found at its end. It reads (with corrections): The second sort (of \u201cforward\u201d and \u201cbackward\u201d movement of the light) is (rooted in the fact) that a light doesn\u2019t achieve its … 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-614","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\/614","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=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}