[Avodah] rivash and kabalah

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 03:40:13PM +0000, rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com wrote:
: One Kabbalah teacher cautioned students to read the beginning of the
: Moreh N'vuchim in order to avoid seeing any anthropomorphisms as literal.
: IOW only when a student realizes these are conceptual and not literal,
: may one safely study Kabbalah.

Except that according to the Leshem's kelalim, which identifies the
tzuros of the higher olamos with the Rambam's definition of Mal'akhim,
the Sephirah of Gevurah can't be separated from Gavriel, nor Chessed
from Michael, etc... ("Etc" meaning, I don't know the other 8 instances.)
The forms are intellects.

However, they aren't of G-d, or even of middlemen that have bechirah.

I recently argued that "conceptual" and higher literal realities
are the same thing. Devoted a series of post to it in the category
<http://www.aishdas.org/asp/category/qabbalah>, which pulls from the Moreh
and Yesodei haTorah, Nefesh haChaim, the Leshem and MmE to construct
a very rationalist Qabbalah loyal to all of the above. The last post,
which due to blogging means the first you'll see by clicking the above
category link, summarizes the series. The other posts include my sources
and further argument for each step.


There is a machloqes between R' Saadia Gaon and the Rambam in their
respective negative theologies. (The notion that all we can say about
HQBH is what He isn't.)

According to the Moreh, there are two ways to understand the various
things that appear to be describing Divine Attributes:
1- They are descriptions of His Actions. E.g. "Rachum" refers to Hashem's
   actions being such that if a person were to do them, we would assume
   they are acting from compassion or empathy.
2- They are descriptions of what He Isn't. Omnipotence isn't that Hashem
   posesses infinite strength. Rather, it's that there is nothing that
   limits His ability to get things done. Omnipresence -- that He has no
   location. Etc...

R' Saadia Gaon's version has a third:
3- There can be attributes of the relationship between the Borei and the
   Beri'ah. Therefore, the Mercy of Divine Rachamim is more than just
   something Hashem wants us to learn from his actions. But it's
   not describing G-d's Mercy, it's a description of His relationshiop
   to Man.

See <http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2005/06/attributes-of-g-d.shtml> for
more. There I focus on infinity and Aristo's belief that there is no
such thing as a completed infinity. The Rambam invokes that position
in his proof that the universe had to have a beginning, so how does He
explain Hashem's Infinity? (Answer, as a negative attribute; not that
there is an infinite amount of G-d but that G-d is literally lacking
anything to limit -- IN-finite.)

RSG's third category would also work for the sephiros.

In Qela"ch Pischei Chokhmah, pesachim #5,6, the Ramchal describes sephiros
as (5) Light which He created in order to make it visible to us, and
(6) middos by which He created the olamos and runs them.

This really sounds like a combination of the notion of their being
attributes of the G-d-Man relationship and only as man sees (or was
created so as to see) that realthsip.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A life of reaction is a life of slavery,
micha at aishdas.org        intellectually and spiritually. One must
http://www.aishdas.org   fight for a life of action, not reaction.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            -Rita Mae Brown