Friday, June 27, 2008

Ohr the cause of Mada in the Soul

1) Brayshees identifies ohr - world of ideas ie Chochmas hashem- underlying the order of creation. Creation as a whole, and its constituent parts, embodies an underlying law of chochmas hashem
2) Ruach Chen explains why Chochmas hashem is analogous to ohr . Just as physical light exists outside the mind and enters the mind by way of the eye of the body, so too, the light of Chochmas hashem exists outside the mind and enters the mind by way of the eye of the soul. Man’s nefesh sichli, develops through apprehension of this order. Emes, the mind’s true apprehension of the ohr is an end product of a process done by kochos ha-nefesh.

3) As we know from Rambam Yesode ha-torah, as well as in Shemone perakim and Ruach Chen, the soul of Man is a potential form that arises via an animal matter.

4) As a potential form that arises via an animal matter, the eye of the soul of Man is dependent upon kochos ha-nefesh that are animal in character. The soul must discern the light of Chochmas hashem in data collected and processed by the kochos ha-nefesh of animal senses and psyche. This dependence poses a challenge to the mind, which must discern if a given processing of data is expressive of Chochmas Hashem or is merely satisfying to power and pleasure drives. It is this dependence upon the animal psyche for data that makes us prone to error and cheyt.(Ralbag on Brayshees).

5) By virtue of the fact that chochmas hashem is external to us, we are able to reflect upon it as an external object or as something illuminating us. This is similar once again to ohr, that can be thought of as an external illuminator or our own experience of seeing or being illuminated.

6) Needless to say, we never see light per se, only our personal experience of a small limited example.
Nontheless, we know that our experience of light points to an absolute light, external to ourselves that our own experience is a puny reflection of.

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