{"id":872,"date":"2011-09-19T09:43:12","date_gmt":"2011-09-19T13:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=872"},"modified":"2011-09-19T09:43:12","modified_gmt":"2011-09-19T13:43:12","slug":"was-it-a-void-or-wasnt-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/09\/19\/was-it-a-void-or-wasnt-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Was it a void or wasn\u2019t it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ramchal moves on from the Tzimtzum<\/em> to explain the next few steps in the creation process [1]. While Ari seems<\/em> to indicate that an utter void was left behind when God\u2019s presence was withdrawn in the course of the Tzimtzum<\/em> process, Ramchal (and others) explained that what\u2019s said to be a trace<\/strong> or remnant of the original light<\/strong>, i.e., of God\u2019s presence, remained behind there (Petach<\/em> 26).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201csaid to be<\/em>\u201d a remnant of God\u2019s presence, but it\u2019s not exactly that, as Ramchal explains in his comments there. Since \u201ca \u2018trace\u2019 is a remnant of something that\u2019s of the same order (as itself) only greater\u2026. \u00a0But, the (original) light that was removed\u201d was of a whole other order: it is an element of God Himself as He is apart from creation, while the trace is an aspect of Him that\u2019s already connected to creation, \u201cthus they\u2019re not in the same order\u201d. But saying it\u2019s a trace is accurate-enough for our purposes since it enables us to understand the whole notion, so we use it so as \u201cto soothe the ear (i.e., to make some sort of sense) so that a person will be able to understand lofty and spiritual things\u201d (Eitz<\/em> Chaim<\/em> p. 14c). The point to be made, though, is that while the most arcane and utterly transcendent aspects of the Source cannot be detected in the space left after the Tzimtzum, a bit of It can –a remnant of it, which, while of a whole other order is still and all a sign of It.<\/p>\n

Now, not all Kabbalists spoke of this trace in their scheme of things; in fact Ari himself didn\u2019t use the term at this stage of his depiction, though he did cite the notion of spiritual phenomena leaving remnants of themselves behind after they went elsewhere [2]. The notion of the Reshimu<\/em> has been attributed to the writings of R\u2019 Yoseph Ibn Tabul (late 16th<\/sup> and early 17th<\/sup> centuries) [3].<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Understand that none of this happened in space and time, which hadn\u2019t yet been created, so the idea of the \u201cnext few steps\u201d isn\u2019t to be taken literally in regard to the process itself so much as in Ramchal\u2019s presentation of it.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Eitz<\/em> Chaim<\/em> 6:5 and 19:1, for example.<\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See his Sefer<\/em> HaDerushim<\/em> 1; but also see his Peirush<\/em> Iddrah<\/em> Rabbah<\/em> p. 136 where he omits the Reshimu<\/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":"

Ramchal moves on from the Tzimtzum to explain the next few steps in the creation process [1]. While Ari seems to indicate that an utter void was left behind when God\u2019s presence was withdrawn in the course of the Tzimtzum … 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-872","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\/872","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=872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}