The Ramchal's Essay on Fundamentals - Part 3 - Rabbi Yirmiyahu Ullman

okay so we're up to page 172 Alex what we're doing here I mentioned you asked what text we're doing we are doing I mentioned to you we're doing a text which is very similar to der Hashem I didn't have time to elaborate then but this is actually an essay which was written by the Rampal who is the author of Turkish M and it's printed at the back of der Hashem so we we started yesterday the day before we finished the first section and we're up to the second one and page 172 oh the name of the actual essay is called mama hiya Kareem the essay on fundamentals yes in the first section is a little part of the first part of the essay is before a spa.i meaning thing the things having to do with the nature of God and our understanding of God so it's it's really it's an essay which has a collection of themes which are more fully developed injera Hashem and summarized here some things are left out it's true but other things are actually added and we read it and explain and usually it's so supplemented by things that the definition actually says or other things that we bring in from the outside as well so this little section of the XA is titled guru Haneen regarding the spiritual forces spiritual beings remember we spoke in the previous session about the bourree that our concept of God as creator is creator not only of the physical universe but creator of the non-physical realm as well the physical universe of course is inhabited by many many different parts many different creations similarly there is a spiritual realm in the spirit realm also is replete with its own special spiritual creations those spiritual non-physical metaphysical beings are by definition non finite infinite but we mentioned that their Infinity is more of what I was describing as a relative infinity as opposed to God's absolute infinity the absolute infinity of God which necessitates it's being only one and no other and having no beginning no end is comprised nevertheless of all that exists both in the physical world in the spiritual world now he's going on this part of the essay to elaborate a bit on that realm of the relatively infinite okay the spiritual hard on is próximo the master may his name be blessed or praised kamal shall be a hotel hability Baltar cleese bara hanim time a goof on him she Roy no just as there is on ended limitless potential of God and God is able to do everything he created all of the physical aspects of finite creation which we see and observe with our own eyes can do not serve Allah on him so in Muharram so too he desired and actually created other forms of reality other creations muli maikelele which are elevated above all of these other aspects of the physical realm of creation bill t-bag awesome boom ooh crushing me no Cushi Michela no which are imperceptible and not able to be perceived by our senses locomotion also named - I'm a goof on him how illegally me holding the hooking and just like God made special limitations and laws that govern the creations in the physical realm can also hook him aquarium so he also created a different set of laws Linum saw him in the morning they are they which are applicable to these more elevated parts of creation these beings creations in the metaphysical plane caffeination gods or hokhmah so his nose the hem the feet in Yanam according to what was view deemed as being befitting by God for each and every category loom nom however the massive hook about big voloom inordinately no shame igloo limit even however as opposed to the laws which govern our lives or the other things in the created physical world which are natural laws shed in nagashi Mochaccino which are perceived by our own senses and nicaragua Funyun for that reason they're called physical whoo Marcia Shula Magoo voloom la mera honey but anything which is liberated in a dependent of these physical forces is called spiritual oakville of a hook of Kathy monsieur morley no no and its limitations are going to be again as well as fitting according to its particular nature welcome oceans of Hondas explained so for example you have the realm of physical creation the physical creation has within it objects those objects are limited by physical laws like place space wait time right they're subject to all types of forces in the physical world like natural forces of gravity or decay right or rust or rain or weather or whatever the case may be the whole realm of spiritual plane is above all of that so that non-physical metaphysical beings of course are going to be independent of any of those things what are some of those creators creations a soul an angel a demon other forces that involved in regulating the world by kind of pushing the buttons behind the scenes in order to dictate how the natural would run but none of these things a soul without a body for example or an angel or a demon or a force whether it be positive or negative because it really affected in any way by things like gravity or weather conditions or weight or time or space or place right the toll the impenitent but they have their own laws what's that they're not they're not they can't they can't choose so you could say that they're not affected by choice although they could be affected by freewill choice of human beings yeah that's an interesting point which means that that the soul is a being in that realm but that soul can be placed in the physical realm in a body a soul can be in the physical realm without a body and that would be a ghost or an apparition what we call in Hebrew a rua a spirit it's basically a bodyless soul and there are such things as souls which are bodies which wander around the world that's an unnatural state we could to talk when we discuss why that happens and how it happens but just a minute but but in any case before that right you know but once it's once a soul is placed in the body that soul then becomes a link between the physical and the spiritual so that there's one point of leverage that the physical world has in the spiritual and that is free will the interesting point yeah so that none of these spiritual beings really have free will at least not in practice maybe only in theory theoretical but when the soul is placed in human being the human beings ability to act upon free will could have an effect on those spiritual realms but that's not physical so the laws of nature like gravity or weather or rust right the other things are not going to affect the soul however the actions of a person in the physical body can affect the soul or are angels or demons or anything else in the spiritual realm not by virtue of the fact that the force is originating from physicality it's not right the power the force is actually coming from within the soul itself only it's being acted upon by the body so the body is a way of pressing the lever of the soul and that set it and that soul has its leverage in the spiritual realm so that freewill really can have an effect on right on that's on that sphere but that's not it but that's not because they are kind of bound by little physical laws on the contrary that's that's because because freewill is actually part of the spiritual realm but it's the human being is that kind of that synapse they were the connection between the physical and the spiritual place takes place interesting point the talk did are and you need to know shaquiesha gaff on him yes meaning show name just like in the physical realm of creations there are many many different species or Kofi's colorful min according to the variety of the species can use halfa hukum um you call him though so the so there will change and be a variety of laws that affect it okay all the natural laws will affect giraffes in one way humans and other stones in one way right and metal yet another metal rot rots right rocks don't I don't know certain things float yeah and other things don't and all these things can boom Haim the same thing in the spiritual realm you Matsu meaning shown him you'll find many different species cool I mean a super hunting there in the general class of spiritual beings but within the class of spiritual beings you have different types of species will be Scala famine yourself okay Michele ahem and as you change the type of species you're gonna change the type of laws that apply to it so for example the laws that govern a soul are not necessarily the laws that govern a demon or those that govern or limited demon are not necessarily be applicable to that of an angel they all operate within the general sphere of the spiritual realm just like all physical things operated in the right sphere of the physical realm but those laws affect its particular objects differently in different ways and the same thing in the spiritual realm well now I'll go to the whole sugery honey but there is one general rule that applies across the boards to all creations in the spiritual realm Shane and Jana villekulla Musa ah no BMS kimochi whoo that it's true essence neither it's true essence nor its limitations can be fully and truly understood by us as they really are oh well you're down and it's you song the fasten Yanam mean it may mean your name but we know a little bit about them and some matters pertaining to them Kathy Masha must a lot of Anna beam according to what was revealed to us by the prophets the and the wise the cronin raha the wise men the sages the Talmud who were privy to this information through the teachings of the Torah either tórshavn Tov or the torch about pay or mokuba lain the Kabbalists through Kabbalah or the prophets right who were given special vision of these types of things so basically what he's saying is that unlike the physical realm which you can actually probe and you can investigate and you can make all arrive all types of let's say a empirical evidence you know through probing that's because you're talking about a physical world which you can investigate and move and operate within one of the other but being spiritual beings we can't really know the true essence of that realm we're not there and we can't know truly what the details of each creation in that realm are because we're not privy to that we can't prove it by and large well we know about it therefore what he's saying is not by some things what you're gonna drive empirically right we can't go make a an empirical study into souls interview them and try and classify and understand and experiment on them neither with demons neelu's angels by and large what it is that we know what is the duties and teachers and all these things are things which we received therefore by tradition or by inspiration but not through investigation that being said I think that through Jewish teachings through Jewish mysticism a person is given a window into that realm and can actually see or perceive or interact with souls with angels good or bad with demons with other types of forces yeah so I'm not quite sure why he's saying we can't really know about these things well that's what it means to say is we can't as the wording seems to apply we can't understand what it truly is we either we're told about it or we can certain individuals can use certain types of spiritual tools to probe that realm but but as long as we're in the physical realm we're anchored in the physical realm we can't really truly understand the nature of a demon or of an angel well the salsa he named me Nia suga's Ashley sure there are three general categories of creatures in this spiritual realm well I thought the first Nikolai's noodling they're called forces vishay nee Malakand the second is angels were Ashley she nosotros vamos these are basically what we've referred to aside for demons he doesn't mention demons what we spoking about forces angels and souls he's an elaborate on each type how quick listen if dulling these forces which are kind of elevated not natural forces but koko-san if dulling they're separated forces their forces which are separate from the physical world hmmm so I'm real Connie moosh laulima guffaws these are spiritual creations which are independent of bodies Zacky Mille Miglia old they're very pure and very elevated women Easter crows another spin is Bora they are closer to the Shekinah valium who surely tamid and upon these forces the divine presence rest always Vinick rowing bish mo skiff imagine awesome and these forces are subdivided into individual elements each one according to its name into its level he gives examples Kalgoorlie aqui say now go to the keys they aren't like the I say wheels which is irreverent to the no round aspects of the Keisei the key state being the throne and we're spoken about well let's say let's go of it further then Oh funny or for example Oh funny which is another aspect sometimes there's certain angels which are called the phoneme he's not referring to here the a phoneme is a certain other part of this structure which is described as the throne the Quixote or other things like this so remember when we were doing in previous text we spoke about how the physical world is connected to the unending essence of God which is ain't self through a hierarchy of a spiritual framework that spiritual framework has four levels well really three there's that see those briolette serie and then the final one to see is the world of creation but above that there are three within those framework of upper worlds you have a structure of the hierarchy of what we refer to as the Superdome man remember referring to the sphero's okay newscaster Hulk Mabini das has said Guevara right the fairest Nets appcode you saw in Taveras that structure of the sphero's which we refer to as the Superdome man is often referred to also as the the throne or sometimes the throne is referring to the whole structure of the hola Mo's where each item has a certain part is ascribed to a certain part of this throne and the Cirrus would occupy a place therefore within the structure a place of the throne but in any case what he's referring to is that the forces would be the types of energy which come up and down through that system connecting the physical to the spiritual and everything that we're speaking about in torment war for example in a in another language using different terminology would be cohosts okay divine energy which is flowing up and down through that system through the throne or through the Superman or through the structure of the sphero's for good or for bad okay and we spoke about for example Co has a kedusha that would be divine energy that's flowing through that system and there's also co-host atooma which break out of those spherical prisms that we spoke about refracting divine light of creation from ends up down into the world and they would become the forces of impurity which also occlude the sphere of Malthus right remember we discussed you yeah so these would also be Coco's so therefore what he's saying here is that one area of these spiritual creations would be what he refers to as Coco's which are the spiritual forces for good or for bad which are flowing through the system which is described here with the language of a throne yes which is basically the part of creation which connects physical creation to the source which is God that would be all one room yeah mm-hmm and it's associated with Malthus associate with Malthus so what this is saying is that the presence of God valium who Charlotte tamid the Shekinah solidity the divine presence right is resting upon these forces at all times what's the divine presence it's basically the expression of the divine from Ain self which is the giver in Kesser right the progenitor all the way down to the final sphere of Malpass which is the receptor go the feminine so all these forces are you know within that kind of framework like we spoke about of directing divine forces generally from the higher realm down to the lower realm from a masculine to the feminine from the progenitor to the receptacle as she just states and gives forth creation okay yes yes yeah yeah that's part of the process part of that's part of symptom and that's part of symptom that we discussed through the yesterday and the day before a bit is that these the purple one of the purposes of these spiritual realms is to reduce the intensity of that divine energy so that things can exist in the presence of God it's like we discussed yesterday right it's not that God is not there but there are curtains which obstruct the the light those curtains would be the different layers of the hark in the spiritual realm part of which is going to be the sphero's and that's going to include the intensity the light such that you can actually be in the presence of meaning reality can seem to exist in the presence of God it's not that God's not there it's just occluded to a certain extent right so that would be the first level these these koco's the second one is a Malakand homologue him hey my name's I am named SOI meconium Geneva will a socially who so shall the boys VAR angels are the creations the spiritual creations which were created for the purpose of doing the bidding of God that's the schlegel the whole Mashiach pots with anything that he would like for him ammonium Cola coddled Indian master masala rots on a lien and each one oversees and supervises whatever realm was decided according to the realm of the the will of God and that's exactly what an angel is a mala what is the mala right mala it comes from the word maluca mala ha is a creative act the melaka our agents which bring into being creates as it were realize crystallize the will of god into the either spiritual or physical realm so model can actually have ashley clothes for something in the spiritual realm we would not necessarily know about that but the mala could but the Moloch certainly has sleepness in the physical realm and that's and that's what it is it's a messenger like it says Vehicles Milwaukee Yaakov sent messengers to Asaph a messenger is somebody who conveys something so the mala the model of the spirits of the spiritual angel is like a spiritual conveyor of divine will in truth and the mouth you know should not be viewed as like this kind of you know winged creature floating through the air with a with some type of a long white robe of course that's not the case there's nothing physical about a Moloch there's no image torn on Amala might be able to manipulate its energy to appear in a certain way or God might manipulate the energy of amalah to have a certain appearance similar to the way in which our bodies or anything in the physical world it was really molded from energy to take on a certain appearance because in truth on a subatomic level everything we're all the same right we're all energy but that energy is manipulated to take right in a certain form in a human certain form an animal certain form of stone or rock or tree the same thing happens in angel an Angels energy can be manipulated to give it the appearance if it's crystallized in some way in the physical realm and we do see for example that God sent angels to Avram in the form of issuer lights right even though they of course were spiritual beings similarly Elio Navi who is not an angel and this might be an appropriate point to point the point is that you know Elio is not an angel even though he's called a melaka briefs he is called the angel of the bris why is that because he's sent by God our sources say to every bris to testify to the fact that Jewish people are still maintaining the Covenant because a Leal had said at some point to God the Jewish people have left the Covenant and the meter says God said you say my people have left the Covenant by your life you will personally be present at every prett in order to testify that my people have not denied the Covenant insofar as he sent there by God he's like an angel right but but he's not an angel of course he's a soul correct Helen of E is a human soul which is in the spiritual realm something like the the existence of an angel because the Leo Olivia is one of the few examples where a person died without actually undergoing a natural death you know as you're familiar with the story that earlier was taken into heaven after being involved by a divine fire right and the consumed in mini and he was raised whole into the spiritual realm I mean every time the implication is that he was such a sodding he was so righteous that he perfected nephesh perfected Ruach perfected neshama meaning have perfected the first three lowest levels of soul and when he came to perfecting the level of hiya at that point he could no longer live in this world and be on that spiritual level after the sin after the downfall after the banishing of Ottoman Eve from the Garden of Eden there became a greater distinction between the spiritual in the physical realm said she either here or there you can't be both places at once and if a person starts working on the level of yet Heda and certainly excuse me higher and certainly if Heda write that work has to be somewhere else that can't be done here so as Leo attained that very high level of perfecting the level of soul which is higher he had to either decide to be here or there but you can't be both places at once and and what happened was that he was taken up spiritual eyes by this fire his body actually kind of passed on to the spiritual realm rather than dying rather than the body pulling the soul down or after or upon death right the tension between the body and soul is released soul elevates and the body is buried in these cases the soul actually pulls the body up with it into the spiritual realm so that Leo's body became spiritual eyes and for that reason Elia I was kind of sent sometimes to do the gods bidding as an angel sometimes since and it's for this reason lel sometimes it's described in in in terms of being an angel but he's not it's really a human being it's more than just human soul it's actually a human being which has been kind of enveloped in divine light but can still crystallize into the physical realm in ways that angels can't and the more talks in many places about how the Navi appears crystallizes in physical form but in any case angel pure angels are certainly not as depicted and sometimes we slip into thinking about them in our in our imaginations in this way as winged child winged child childlike figures clothed in white robes but rather what they are is concentrated pockets of divine will God wills and that will was a like a divine thought that thought is full of the energy right and and as that will proliferate and is executed it is described as being Amala so God creates and destroys Malaki which means God thinks and you know thinks intends to do something that thing is accomplished and he goes on to something else so really in its strict form al-maliki is like this pocket of divine will but we call it an angel which is a sweetness because this thought is being sent through the spiritual realm in order to affect that will into action mmm that would be the second class yesterday I Mookie Luke William caffee Moschino for him they also have spiritual laws which cover them which is appropriate to them I'll be home on the honor according to the elevated supernal wisdom of God that would be the second category even with the class of angels you have different types the rambam in your survey of Torah enumerates ten different types of angels each type what it's called my it's called that there's a funny and there's roughing and there's eating many different types but they also a lot of fall under the general category of angels and of course you also have what I think might be called the ark typical angels like Gabrielle or Raphael or McCoy Oh al you know generally that's supposed to say the name of angels by the way just like you're not supposed to say the name of demons and the reason is because just like somebody mentioned our free will is kind of a connection to the spiritual realm and the things that we do as a result of that free will can have an effect there we also have a power not only of thought but a speech and our power of speech is literally that it's not just the ability to speak it's the power of speech we create and destroy with our language in the spiritual sense and part of our ability to do so would be to call upon the power of the Angels and it's given over into human beings and certainly the Jewish people the ability to command not only through freewill acts have an effect on the spiritual realm but actually command the spiritual realm to do things in the form of calling upon angels or demons positive negative forces these are all permitted down there stomping off as well person should not be messing around with the demons but if he knows what he's doing why not he's the master and you can control that they can harness the power of any demon to do anything he wants that's permitted of course nothing that's not permitted only things which were permitted I mean to say permitted according to the Torah but it is permitted to use angels in a permitted in a permitted way as well and one of the way we do that is is employing our power speech and therefore just calling in the name of an angel or demon or a Christian in serum brings them to us to do our bidding kind of like a genie yeah the problem is when a person calls upon this spiritual genie but he doesn't know what he's doing and doesn't know that it's there and it doesn't do anything with that energy that he has mustered at his disposal that energy can often now disperse and and react negatively against him so he's caused this concentration of energy to be drawn to his service so particularly in the form of a diamond but he doesn't do it anything with it he doesn't command it or direct it that energy then come like dissipate in that place and actually harm the person that's certainly true regarding demons is even true regarding angels so roses not supposed to Riverside even the names of angels indiscriminately it was the context of learning one is allowed to say Gabrielle Rhea file and so from the zone but just to say the name another situation where it's permitted of course is when you referring to person's name yeah you might have the name Gabrielle or Rafael but each of these are clickable angels are also a form of divine will it's not like their individual beings really they're really just regular naturally put it channels through which divine energy is directed in a specific way not like specific instances but in more general terms so for example there is a power of remedy of healing which is regularly needed by the world therefore there is a channel through which that curative the turret of power is directed that's referred to that channel is refil okay we call him or it the angel of health yeah but it's not like you see the plane it's like there's an angel of health which has it been existence or makes any decisions on its own really in a more sophisticated way of thinking about it it is that regularly established channel for the flow of divine energy in the direction of rasullah okay the same thing for example regarding gavrio coming from the word Guevara which is strength or judgment and Gavriel is that regularly established channel through which divine energy is directed and flowed into the world for the purpose of bringing about Lowell a no deaning dwara which is dinne judgments okay same thing regarding for example my coil the coil is described as being the angel of Hesed not like flora but I said and it's based on me Koel who is like God it's known but in question right establishing a loving or inspired relationship to God l is like this angel of Hesed see I've got real you have McCoy foil you also have Oriole L'Oreal comes from the word or or means fire or light so Oriel is the angel of divine light right tapping into Oriole it would be a very electrifying experience if you don't know what you're doing you can get burned and therefore our person is where you know we are discouraged from thinking that we can call upon these names or draw upon ourselves the power or their influence and someone's own City again people who have learned and have a tradition about how to do these types of things can do this yeah but these would all this would be some discussion about about angels honish ammos that's the third category correct Hannes Ramos him Henning Troy meconium these are spiritual beings moot or demon of oh boo goo voice which are designed in the future to be placed into bodies who describe him and to connect to them but the ex is the existence of the soul you see proceeds that of the body with the kasha Pam Ke$ha girdle and to be connected to the body with a great connection and the more actually talks about how there is a spiritual there's a chamber in the spiritual realm called goof that's the name of the place called goof-goof means body why is it called goof because just as a person's body as a home for the soul houses the soul so there's a repository of souls in the spiritual realm which is called goof because it houses those souls and those souls are there in this repository until one by one they're sent down into the world for the purpose of joining bodies mm-hmm yeah right but each splitter or each spark is really described or thought of as one soul but it's true they're all sub parts of what we call root souls and the root souls are six hundred thousand maybe more says and Bend Ovid bah actually a hollow call in a showmanship a goof Ben David I mean the son of David meaning the Messiah will not come until all the souls have been depleted from the goof what's the goof this realm this was repository of souls implying that there's a finite number of souls once all those souls have been brought down into bodies and have been perfected then the ship could come which is in concept but the soul certainly pre-exists the body their individual spiritual creations just like physical creations in truth or God we spoke about that certainly that's true in the spiritual realm as well the distinction becomes much more subtle there than here but but and what we said here applies there as well but the souls are like on the continuum of God for the ham houki and protein caffeine yawning and therefore to all of these classes I don't think he's referring only to Souls but maybe he is let's see for the ham cooking protein convenient regime itself we show the head each have their own laws that cover them parish what this means is key Guinea MIT saw him show name name saw him the neshamah so there are different scenarios differents different situations which apply to the souls sharra yesh lehem MIT Co super goof because they do have a plane of existence outside the body omitsu specific goof and they have a plane of existence within the body so that they are affected therefore the souls by different forces different times vomit zeros whose LeBouf who mich naming him the experience outside of the body takes two forms who admits you saw and tell him he owes and goof the first is replying first applies to the experience of the soul before it was ever in a body mache me the second with Zeus on hoots the goof-hawk rainbow the experience of all outside of the body after had already been there so you have two conditions for the soul outside the body one before the soul and Virendra the body and one regarding the soul after has departed from the body look if we call him at solving merely according to these different scenarios can volume Bukavu lean when a similarly mimicry I'm sure named amis handsome so to therefore the nature of the forces that affect them and the limitations are gonna change accordingly so I suppose there are certain laws that govern the status of a soul before it was ever placed in the body and different ones that applied to us all that hasn't occupied for the body for example so that has never been placed in the body will not be subject to reincarnation there's no such thing nor will it be subject to Ghanaian organum right because in every context to the body only after the souls been in a body would it then have some relevance to reincarnation or GaN Eden or go hit him for that matter so you see that even though the soul has experiences outside the body they may very well Kofi ma sure euros for the months of us Shahan bo and it all is going to be as befitting for the particular state that the soul is in at that time once a soul has been placed in a body I don't suppose it can actually have the same experience as a soul that never entered the body either why because once that soul enters the body it's like going through a portal which is going to now be making that soul move towards perfection realizing the Prashad protective protection excuse me the perfection that it has that it has it latent li yeah bringing that latent perfection into into fruition so once it goes through that portal it already sets the soul in a trajectory which is going to paint Vega in a place which is much different than it was before it went down in the body that said it is my understanding that in the case of reincarnation the soul will for example go back into the goof right which is that spiritual repository for souls and then be brought back down into the body again together with souls that would be right down for the first time so in terms of the experience of being in the booth there seems to be some similarity at least between souls that has been born and souls that have not nowadays we're told my the Kabbalists particularly by the AI result that there's no such thing as original souls anymore all souls have been all souls epic pigs that have existed in bodies and and now everything is all giggling it's all reincarnation z-- trying to get all of those souls perfected to the point where we will actually bring about mashiac and the world to come hama looking cool um he named him mushara so views brock always say tomorrow the angels all of them they are the servants of God may his name be blessed the cold evil item nassim ugly day him and everything that happens the world happens through their agency been the toes been the raw for good or for bad when we thought they miss Hulk in the stake ethos and in this respect angels themselves also have two types Casa Topher kisara the group which is good and the group which is bad to what this means is I'm in money in the todos those which are responsible and supervises supervise things which are good well things that we perceive as good Bennet avos huh goof O'Neill's whether that benevolence is in the physical form Oh Bennet ovo's enough shows whether that benevolence is spiritual Verma mooning the Ross and then the second category those who supervise things which we perceive to be bad evil goo funniest enough shots they also have two different form physical and spiritual okay so you have two forms of angels what we would call good or bad meaning those that bring about good things that we perceive good those which bring about what we perceive as bad and each category has two realms of action either in the physical or the spiritual so that for example an angel can be responsible for bringing about material bounty or bringing about spiritual bounty similarly an angel can be responsible for bringing about physical harm or spiritual harm ham ammonium ala Rose those angels which are responsible for overseeing the things that we perceive as evil they're referred to sometimes by the term of Malachi Kabbalah destructive angels or mazikeen harmful forces I wonder if they would relate to really saying before respectively namely Maha Bala might be those responsible for bringing upon physical harm and Mazique and spiritual harm but I'm not sure if that's what he's getting at okay I think we should probably end here and continue the discussion Bazaar next time we meet you