Klach Pitchei Chochma -- Petach 1 (Part 1)

Klach Pitchei Chochma -- 138 Openings to Wisdom

By Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

As adapted by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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Petach 1 (Part 1)

The Infinite One’s Yichud implies that only His will functions and no other will functions other than through it. Hence, He alone reigns (supreme) and no one else’s will does. And the entire structure is built on this foundation.

1.

Ramchal’s primary concern in this work is to define and underscore the importance of G-d’s Yichud, and to use the Kabbalistic system to accomplish that. Before he gets to all that, though, he sets out to explain a couple of other points that we’d need to understand beforehand.

As such, he says at a certain point in this first petach that it’s important that we understand “that we’re not discussing G-d unto Himself” in this work “whatsoever”, since we may not, for a number of reasons. (Most significantly, we’d offer, because whatever we’d say about Him unto Himself is incorrect, since all the words, symbols, and references we’d draw from are human or superhuman at best, are thus rooted in things created, and hence un-God by definition.)

So whatever is said here in Klach Pitchei Chochma only touches upon God’s will, since “we are permitted to speak of it”. (As it’s the point at which G-d’s Being first touches upon creation and the human experience.) Yet even this has its restrictions since “even here there’s a limit as to how far our minds can go” as far as that’s concerned (given that His will is the very first and hence most tenuous point at which His Being and creation converge) [1]. So while we will indeed be discussing G-d’s will, we should recall that we’re still-and-all limited in what we can say.

(c) 2007 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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Notes:

[1] See Ramchal’s Adir Bamarom p.59A, Ma’amar HaVichuach 44, and Ma’amar Yichud HaYirah; also see Vilna Gaon at the end of his commentary to Sifra D’tzniutah, “Sod Hatzimtzum”; the beginning of HaRav m’Fano’s Yonat Elim, as well as Ramban’s introduction to his comments to the Torah.

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