{"id":996,"date":"2011-12-20T11:21:56","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T16:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=996"},"modified":"2011-12-20T11:21:56","modified_gmt":"2011-12-20T16:21:56","slug":"adam-kadmon-and-the-tetragrammaton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/12\/20\/adam-kadmon-and-the-tetragrammaton\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Kadmon and the Tetragrammaton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ramchal then lays out the particulars of Adam Kadmon<\/em>. He starts with this statement: \u201cThere\u2019s one primary entity under whose auspices\u2026\u00a0 all other entities need to \u2026 function\u201d in the trace environment, \u201cand it\u2019s the four-letter ordering of Yod<\/em>, Heh<\/em>, Vav<\/em>, and Heh<\/em>, which comprises the (gist of the) \u2026 mystical phenomenon of Adam Kadmon<\/em>\u201d [1].<\/p>\n

As he put it in Petach<\/em> 31, t<\/strong>he first order adopted by the emanated light, <\/strong>i.e., the trace environment, that was to be established in the mystical configuration of ten Sephirot<\/em> and to be arranged in the likeness of a human is termed Adam<\/em> Kadmon<\/em>. It always and forever follows the sequence of the <\/strong>four letters of the name Havayah<\/em><\/strong>, i.e., Heh<\/em>, Vav<\/em>, <\/em>Yod<\/em>, and <\/em>Heh<\/em>, a purposeful and reverent misspelled acronym of the Tetragrammaton actually spelled Yod<\/em>, Heh<\/em>, Vav<\/em>, and Heh<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Thus, the trace environment was first filled in by Adam Kadmon<\/em> with its ten Sephirot<\/em>, and the four letters of the Tetragrammaton comprise the basic structure of the whole of Adam<\/em> Kadmon <\/em>and those Sephirot<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Ramchal then stresses the importance of Adam<\/em> Kadmon\u2019s<\/em> component parts as a paradigm of the rest of creation with his remark at the conclusion of Petach <\/em>31 that it\u2019s \u201cthe <\/strong>source of the idea of the various orders and rules <\/strong>of governance <\/strong>of the worlds falling under the order of these four letters<\/strong>\u201d. <\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll follow through on what he offers about this, but first let\u2019s discuss the four letters of the Tetragrammaton for a bit.<\/p>\n

The Kabbalists point out that when laid out linearly they form something of a (stick-figure) depiction of a human-form, thus of Adam Kadmon<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u05d9<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u05d4<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u05d5<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u05d4<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2026 with the \u05d9<\/strong> representing the “head”; the first \u05d4<\/strong> representing the two \u201carms\u201d; the \u05d5<\/strong> representing the \u201ctorso\u201d; and the second \u05d4<\/strong> representing the \u201clegs\u201d.<\/p>\n

We notice too, of course that there are two \u05d4<\/strong>‘s; that the \u05d5<\/strong> seems be an elongated version of the \u05d9<\/strong> which itself seems to be an elongated version of the \u201ctip of the \u05d9<\/strong>” which will be discussed later; and that over all there are two elements here: a plastic, more adaptive one (the \u05d9<\/strong>) and a solid, more set one (the \u05d4<\/strong>) [2].<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Iggerot Pitchei Chochma V\u2019Da\u2019at<\/em> 3.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The plasticity and ability of the \u05d9<\/strong> to elongate may explain why it\u2019s representative of the \u201cmale\u201d or male organ, incidentally.<\/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 then lays out the particulars of Adam Kadmon. He starts with this statement: \u201cThere\u2019s one primary entity under whose auspices\u2026\u00a0 all other entities need to \u2026 function\u201d in the trace environment, \u201cand it\u2019s the four-letter ordering of Yod, Heh, … 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-996","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\/996","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=996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}