{"id":903,"date":"2011-10-31T15:00:47","date_gmt":"2011-10-31T19:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=903"},"modified":"2011-10-31T15:00:47","modified_gmt":"2011-10-31T19:00:47","slug":"the-solution-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/10\/31\/the-solution-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"The solution (Part 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The line, though, is the gift of relative<\/em> \u201cperfection that God allowed back\u201d into the environment created by the Tzimtzum<\/em> \u201cin order to (allow the created entities to) perfect all of their imperfections\u201d to a degree<\/em>. That\u2019s to say, as he goes on to explain, the \u201cperfection that God brought back\u201d was the kind that was \u201crelative to their (i.e., the created entities\u2019) makeup, and not relative to His own His makeup\u201d which would be utter<\/em> perfection. The latter refers to the presence of God that remains outside<\/em> of and surrounds<\/em> the world\u2019s environment (Klallim<\/em> Rishonim<\/em> 6).<\/p>\n

In other words, there are three environments: 1. There\u2019s God\u2019s own, which is removed from the world\u2019s and is represented by God\u2019s presence surrounding<\/em> the \u201cspace\u201d created by the Tzimtzum<\/em>; 2. there\u2019s the imperfect and ambiguous environment allowed for by the existence of the (mere) \u201ctrace\u201d of God\u2019s presence; and 3. there\u2019s the sort of relative perfection that the world can achieve in the environment created by the \u201ctrace\u201d thanks to God having allowed His presence to shine upon the \u201ctrace\u201d environment by means of the \u201cline\u201d.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s to say that Ramchal apparently sees Ari\u2019s system as a means of depicting the drama of God\u2019s interactions with reality: of God allowing for it, His granting it its challenges and its possibilities, and His standing at a distance from it while yearning for its success.<\/p>\n

Put another way and taking great liberties in the process, we\u2019d suggest that Ramchal could be said to see the Kabbalistic system as a depiction of God\u2019s \u201cparenting\u201d of the universe, so to speak; His leaving it on its own in an imperfect but tenable environment that He supplies and provides for; and His enabling it achieve its potential (without granting it that from the outset — like a wise parent who refuses to spoil his child and wants him instead to reach his potential on his own, along with the parent\u2019s encouragement) [1].<\/p>\n

Note:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Note that the eventual revelation of God\u2019s full sovereignty will undo the image of Him as a loving, hands-off parent in that all prove to have been in God\u2019s hands from the first, but that\u2019s beside the present point.\u00a0See Adir<\/em> Bamarom<\/em> p. 266 for more on the connections between the Tzimtzum<\/em>, trace, and line.<\/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":"

The line, though, is the gift of relative \u201cperfection that God allowed back\u201d into the environment created by the Tzimtzum \u201cin order to (allow the created entities to) perfect all of their imperfections\u201d to a degree. That\u2019s to say, as … 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-903","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\/903","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=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}