[Avodah] Angel Hierarchy

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 08:29:37PM +0000, rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com wrote:
: In Yesodei Hattorah Rambam demarcates a very specific angelic hierrarchy
: Touger notes that the Zohar has a similar albeit slightly different
: hierarchy.

This touches on something I wanted to post as part of my reply to R'
Saul Newman's post of Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 10:54:31AM -0700, where
he quotes a blogger who writes (in part)
: "There is a lot of confusion about the term "rationalism." What is a
: rationalist? The differences between rationalists and non-rationalists
: fall into three categories:

: A) Denial of Pnimius HaTorah

Does he mean like the Aristotilian rationalist who wrote the classic
peirush to Seifer haYetzirah -- R' Saadia Gaon?

Or like the rishon who describes creation as an overflow of Divine
Intellect. The Mamtzi -- not not the "Borei" -- who is the only
Non-Contingent, has a Thought. That Thought is in turn a seikhel nivdal,
a tzurah beli chomer, and one step more contingent. It too has a thought,
also a seikhel nivdal / tzurah and one step even more contigent, and so
on downward until this overflow of thought becomes the world as we have it.

Meanwhile, nevu'ah is also caused by the overflow. Such that the prophet
sees the actual overflowing itself.

Of course, as is telegraphed by my handing this on RRW's words, this
seemingly hyper-mystical view of creation is the Rambam's.

As I wrote here back in 2004:
Averroes (ibn Rushd), who translated Aristotle's works, mistook Plotinus's
Enneads (the works that started neo-Platonism) to be Aristo's, and
therefore includes them in the translation. Therefore, everyone who got
Aristotle via the Arabic had strong neo-Platonic influences. Including
the Rambam...

What I wrote above is from YhT 1:1 (the Mamtzi) and 2:5 (the chain of
mal'akhim).

That nevu'ah is seeing the overflow is from MN 2:36 and III:18 (which also
connects it to HP). And BTW, I noticed that this fits well with what he
says about mal'akhim only being visible bechazon hanevu'ah (ibid ch 56).
Nevuah sees the overflow that reaches and becomes the universe, and
mal'akhim are the steps of that overflow, so mimanafshach they should
figure in nevu'ah.

The difference between the "Mequbalim" and the "rationalists" was more
in which Greek philsophers they tended to borrow terminology from. Which
is why the Rambam, who was (I believe) an unwitting semi-neoPlatonist,
can sound like a mequbal if you pick up the right pieces. And in fact,
the Rambam considered his philosophy to be the Sod of the Pardeis and
beyond the reach of the hoi-paloi just as Mequbalim thought theirs was.

And the Zohar acknowledges this similarity to Plato and neoPlatonism.
However, the flow went the other way -- Greek thought traces back to the
Bavliim who were taught by Daniel and the other nevi'im who were forced
by Ashpenaz to staff Nevchadnezzar's court.

(Similarly, the Zohar doesn't deny the similarity between its mystical
traditions and Eastern Meditation. Rather, it explains that Avraham
gave them these skills when he taught them to benei Qeturah and sent
them east.)

...
: So hagganah we get the Michael interface
: Vengence - Gavriel
: Healing - Rephael
: Learning - Uriel

Mikhael is Chessed, opposite Gavriel/Gevurah. Which is why, according to
the Malbim, in Daniel, Chessed can span the world in one step, but
Gavriel requires two.

Gevurah is a consequence of Divine Chessed; much the way parents will
stand back and let their toddler walk or fall on her own -- it's the
greater chessed (mashal mine). Therefore the Malbim describes Gavriel's
two steps as being one to Mikhael for consultation and then one to span
the world.

: We can play the same game with the Sephiros
: We may need Hashem's Hessed or His Gevurah. Instead of a hierarchy it
: could simply be a ring of interfaces.
: (As to why we need interfaces at all ein kan mekomo leha'arich)

Excapt that the Eitz Chayim structure is as much part of the post-Zohar
qabbalah as the sephiros themselves. (I don't think it's mentioned in
Seifer haYetzirah.) The Leshem describes the partzufim as more like what
you're calling interfaces, and they are interactions of subsets of the
sefiros and the connections between them. All of which are only existent
in Hashem-as-perceived, the Qav, not the Ein Sof.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Strength does not come from winning. Your
micha at aishdas.org        struggles develop your strength When you go
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