{"id":829,"date":"2011-08-18T11:19:18","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T15:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=829"},"modified":"2011-08-18T11:19:18","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T15:19:18","slug":"tzimtzum-the-solution-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/08\/18\/tzimtzum-the-solution-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Tzimtzum: the solution (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ramchal then moves on to its import, by depicting the Tzimtzum<\/em> of the Ein<\/em> Sof<\/em> <\/strong>as the act by which the Ein<\/em> Sof<\/em> purposefully set aside His infinitude and adopted the mode of finite action<\/strong> i.e., of finitude, instead <\/strong>(Petach<\/em> 24). <\/strong>That\u2019s to say that Ramchal understands the Tzimtzum<\/em> as a purposeful act of Self-suppression<\/em> on God\u2019s part, rather than a stepping aside or an act of physical diminution of some sort: he saw it as an act of God’s only functioning out of one aspect of His Being rather than the whole of It.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s to say that if, as we indicated above, God was and is \u201ccertainly capable of (creating or doing) much more (than He did); (but) He (simply) didn\u2019t want to\u201d, then the Tzimtzum<\/em> was simply the sign that He indeed chose not to create more than He did.<\/p>\n

For, God wanted the universe to function on a relative basis — relative to His intentions for us and our reality — not on an absolute, God-based basis. So (as Ramchal said in his comments to Petach 24), \u201cHis act of Tzimtzum<\/em> prepared the way for the creation to come into being in a way that\u2019s suited to the nature of the created realms and beings\u201d rather than His own infinite nature.<\/p>\n

He then adds a couple of other points in his comments there: first, that \u201cthe Tzimtzum<\/em> isn\u2019t only a matter of the absence of infinitude\u201d and thus just a negative phenomenon. He underscores the fact that it serves a very positive role, in that it sustains the relative universe that we experience and \u201cmaintains the boundaries and limitations in being\u201d that define our world.<\/p>\n

Second, he adds that by having allowed for this human-centered relative universe the Tzimtzum<\/em> manifested \u201cthe roots of\u00a0Din<\/em> (judgment)\u201d. In short (because this is a very loaded statement that touches on many themes including reward and punishment which we\u2019ll discuss below, and more), having chosen to limit His capabilities to create the universe God introduced the entire phenomenon of limitation<\/em>, which is the heart of Din<\/em>. For, while Chessed <\/em>(loving-kindness), its polar opposite, is exemplified by expansion and bypassing boundaries, Din<\/em> is exemplified by restriction and staying within boundaries. The point of the matter is that while God is inherently expansive, He stifled that, and thus allowed for Din<\/em> which functions in our boundary-laden universe alone for good reasons.<\/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":"

Ramchal then moves on to its import, by depicting the Tzimtzum of the Ein Sof as the act by which the Ein Sof purposefully set aside His infinitude and adopted the mode of finite action i.e., of finitude, instead (Petach … 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-829","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\/829","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=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}