{"id":859,"date":"2011-09-14T11:41:47","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T15:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=859"},"modified":"2011-09-14T11:41:47","modified_gmt":"2011-09-14T15:41:47","slug":"wrong-evil-and-injustice-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/09\/14\/wrong-evil-and-injustice-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Wrong, Evil, and Injustice (Part 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

But as to the source of rah<\/em>, Ramchal tells us that it\u2019s the \u201ctrace\u201d <\/strong>(the Reshimu<\/em>) of the original light <\/strong>(Petach<\/em> 26) — the remnant of Godliness left behind despite the Tzimtzum<\/em> process as we\u2019ll see — which is \u201cthe source of all imperfect lower phenomena\u201d (Klallim<\/em> Rishonim<\/em> 5) [1]. Rah<\/em> is also rooted in the phenomenon known as the existence of the \u201cPrimordial Kings\u201d and of their \u201cshattering\u201d which produced \u201cthe Sephirot<\/em> of the Other Side\u201d (Klallim<\/em> Rishonim<\/em> 11) — perhaps best described as a very purposeful rupture in the creation process (to be explained later on in this work). And it\u2019s depicted as being a product of Malchut<\/em> of the world of Assiyah<\/em> (Klallim<\/em> Rishonim<\/em> 29) — i.e., of the lowest aspect of the lowest realm, as one would expect.<\/p>\n

He characterizes this trace as a mere shadow of God\u2019s actual and full presence (Da\u2019at<\/em> Tevunot<\/em> 48), and thus portrays rah<\/em> as a sort of perceived lack or diminution of God\u2019s presence, again making the point indicated above that rah<\/em> isn\u2019t a separate, intrinsic phenomenon. In fact he reiterates that point in his comments to Petach<\/em> 27, where he says that, \u201cthere is no rah<\/em> in God\u2019s presence — rah <\/em>only exists in the absence of His perfection; (and in fact,) rah<\/em> will cease to exist once His perfection is revealed\u201d [2].<\/p>\n

And Ramchal lays out the distinctions between the holy and the unholy Sephirot<\/em> and realms in the Zohar addressed above his comments to Petach<\/em> 30. There are three differences between them as he lays them out: \u201cThe first \u2026 is that while the Sephirot<\/em> are (the expression of) the (full) will of God, \u2026 the Other Side is merely a single (specific) creation which the Lord made (ad<\/em> hoc<\/em>, if you will) because He wanted it (for a particular and isolated end) \u2026.Thus rah<\/em> is subordinate to the One Lord and dependent upon Him, and is merely charged with carrying out His order\u2026.The second difference, which derives from the first, is that the power (i.e., actions, consequences, etc.) of the Sephirot<\/em> was exactly calculated to function in accordance with God’s will\u2026. It appears that the Other Side can challenge them and disallow them to function, but (in truth), if Ein<\/em> Sof<\/em> had wanted to, He could have increased the power of the Sephirot<\/em> as much as He would have wanted to and the Other Side would (thus) not have the slightest ability to challenge the Side of Holiness. For (in truth) the Other Side is truly limited in scope compared to the power of the Sephirot<\/em>\u2026. And the third difference is that the source of goodness was primordial and did not have to be brought into being\u2026, while the source of the Other Side was an innovation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Da\u2019at<\/em> Tevunot<\/em> 48.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Adir<\/em> Bamarom<\/em> 1, pp. 397, 404-405, 457-458; Da\u2019at<\/em> Tevunot <\/em>148.<\/p>\n

From Ramchal\u2019s comments to Petach<\/em> 30: \u201cInitially all was perfect; it was only afterwards that imperfection emerged. Its existence is due to the underlying power of Din<\/em> (Judgment), which was only revealed by means of the Tzimtzum<\/em>. It brought about concealment, void and emptiness, and every sort of imperfection that could possibly exist\u201d.<\/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":"

But as to the source of rah, Ramchal tells us that it\u2019s the \u201ctrace\u201d (the Reshimu) of the original light (Petach 26) — the remnant of Godliness left behind despite the Tzimtzum process as we\u2019ll see — which is \u201cthe … 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-859","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\/859","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=859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}