{"id":989,"date":"2011-12-18T10:55:09","date_gmt":"2011-12-18T15:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=989"},"modified":"2011-12-18T10:55:09","modified_gmt":"2011-12-18T15:55:09","slug":"the-joining-of-polar-opposites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/12\/18\/the-joining-of-polar-opposites\/","title":{"rendered":"The joining of polar opposites"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re going to be drawing upon Ramchal\u2019s Iggerot Pitchei Chochma V\u2019Da\u2019at<\/em> 3 most especially to explain this section.<\/p>\n

As he lays it out there, in point of fact \u201cthere are an infinite number of worlds\u201d in the trace environment that is our reality — not just the few esoteric ones we\u2019ll be focusing on. And Ramchal says as much in his comments to Petach<\/em> 31.<\/p>\n

What he does offer at the latter site besides that at this point, though, is this arresting definition of a \u201cworld\u201d, which we\u2019ll consider here before we go on with the rest of this section.<\/p>\n

Ramchal understands a \u201cworld\u201d as a system consisting of \u201ca benefactor (\u05de\u05e9\u05e4\u05d9\u05e2) and a recipient (\u05de\u05e7\u05d1\u05dc)\u201d. That\u2019s to say that each facet of reality — each \u201cworld\u201d — must consist of an environment in which two polar opposite entities can form a mutually beneficial relationship and produce vital results [1], much like an electric circuit which, despite or most especially because of its polar opposite elements, manages to generate power.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the point remains that there are an infinite number of worlds in the trace environment, even though we\u2019ll be focusing in on just a few by necessity.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019re comparing the \u201cbenefactor\u201d and \u201crecipient\u201d functions here to the reciprocally beneficial relationship of the “upper waters” of the heavens which are taken to be male and beneficent, and the “lower waters” of the earth which are taken to be female and receptive (see Breishit<\/em> Rabbah<\/em> 13:13; Zohar 1, 29b, etc.)<\/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":"

We\u2019re going to be drawing upon Ramchal\u2019s Iggerot Pitchei Chochma V\u2019Da\u2019at 3 most especially to explain this section. As he lays it out there, in point of fact \u201cthere are an infinite number of worlds\u201d in the trace environment that … 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-989","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\/989","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=989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}