I\u2019m going to be \u201cerasing\u201d the contents of this blog until now and starting all over again. I\u2019ve done a lot of learning about Klach Pitchei Chochma in the interim and have decided to take a new approach.<\/p>\n
To now I\u2019ve used R\u2019 Chaim Friedlander\u2019s, R\u2019 Yoseph Spinner\u2019s, R\u2019 Dovid Cohen\u2019s (known as the Nazir and whose edition is brand new) and R\u2019 Mordechai Shriki\u2019s editions of the text (though the latter is also new and not quite as extensive as the others, surprisingly so considering R\u2019 Shriki\u2019s erudition). But I\u2019ve come upon R\u2019 Yoseph Avivi\u2019s Zohar Ramchal in which he analyzes Ramchal\u2019s thoughts, and have been struck by his insights. It had been out of print for years and has since been reissued.<\/p>\n
To be sure, R\u2019 Shriki had made many of the same points in his own groundbreaking Rechev Yisrael, which I read when it came out 12 or more years ago. Having read Avivi\u2019s work I\u2019d now need to go back to Shriki\u2019s who sometimes argues with Avivi.<\/p>\n
There are a number of central themes within Klach (and elsewhere in Ramchal\u2019s writings which I\u2019ll draw from as well) that one would have to take into account in order to offer an intelligent treatment of the work. They include Ramchal\u2019s understandings of why we\u2019re to study Kabbalah, his reasons for having written Klach, his idea that core Kabbalistic themes are actually metaphors (mashalim) whose referents (nimshalim) he sets out to present, the notion that everything will eventually reveal Godliness (Giloi HaYichud), and that all wrong and evil will be turned to right and goodness.<\/p>\n
Catch you later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m going to be \u201cerasing\u201d the contents of this blog until now and starting all over again. I\u2019ve done a lot of learning about Klach Pitchei Chochma in the interim and have decided to take a new approach. To now … Continue reading