{"id":879,"date":"2011-09-21T11:34:22","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T15:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=879"},"modified":"2011-09-21T11:34:22","modified_gmt":"2011-09-21T15:34:22","slug":"the-line-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/09\/21\/the-line-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cLine\u201d (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now on to the next step in the creation process: the descent of the \u201cline\u201d (Kav<\/em>). As Ari words it, \u201cAfter the aforementioned Tzimtzum<\/em> \u2026 a single straight line extended from the light of the Ein<\/em> Sof<\/em> \u2026 from above to below, descending and developing into that \u2018void\u2019\u201d [1]. That\u2019s to say that a lone projectile was made to extend out of God\u2019s Being that originated in Him but lengthened \u201cdownward\u201d all the way into our reality. The \u201cline\u201d is clearly an indication of a direct connection between God and creation, but what implications are we\u2019re to draw from it?<\/p>\n

Ramchal makes the point in Petachim<\/em> 27-28 that this \u201cline\u201d speaks to God\u2019s interactions with and His governance of the cosmos, as we\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

He tells us there that everything that was to exist <\/strong>in the world has its roots in <\/strong>the aforementioned trace <\/strong>\u2026 and that the Infinite <\/strong>\u2026 interacts with <\/strong>those phenomena \u2026 <\/strong>(Petach<\/em> 27) <\/strong>by means of the<\/strong> line of<\/strong> (i.e., that emanates from) Ein<\/em> Sof<\/em> which entered into the<\/strong> \u201cemptiness\u201d that contains the trace, is sequestered within it on every level, and is said to govern it<\/strong> from within. But <\/strong>the Infinite also stands outside of the trace and encompasses it, and is said to incorporate<\/strong> all of its abilities and to observe it from every angle <\/strong>and to thus govern it from without (Petach<\/em> 28).<\/strong><\/p>\n

In other words, Ramchal understands the \u201cline\u201d as a sort of life-line, if you will — an umbilical cord — between ourselves and our Source who, while lying outside of the world nonetheless communes with it, albeit minimally, by means of a thin line rather than a shaft, ribbon, or full column of light.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From The Tree of Life <\/em>pp. 14-15 (with slight changes).<\/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":"

Now on to the next step in the creation process: the descent of the \u201cline\u201d (Kav). As Ari words it, \u201cAfter the aforementioned Tzimtzum \u2026 a single straight line extended from the light of the Ein Sof \u2026 from above … 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-879","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\/879","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=879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}