How Ramchal Maps Atzilut Vessels and the Root of Evil

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto composed Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah in Padua during the 1730s as a structured map of the Lurianic system, condensing the sprawling writings of the Arizal into one hundred and thirty-eight numbered gates. Two passages from the work address adjacent stages in the same unfolding. The first passage describes the original material from which every later detail of creation emerged, locating its source in the lights of SaG that issued from the eyes of Adam Kadmon. The second passage turns to the consequence of that emergence and explains why evil belongs only to the outer garments of Atzilut rather than to the essence of the lights themselves.

How the lights of SaG supplied the first material of creation

The opening passage begins with a description of what existed before the differentiated structure of the worlds took shape. Ramchal identifies a general foundation of lights and vessels that preceded every subsequent division. That foundation drew its substance from the lights of SaG, one of the four primordial names that the Lurianic system assigns to the inner radiance of Adam Kadmon. The lights of Nekudim, which produced the famous shattering of the vessels, came specifically from SaG of SaG, the lower aspect within that broader category, while the higher aspects emerged through the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth in a sequence the Arizal traced in extensive detail.

The technical vocabulary carries a precise structural claim. AV, SaG, MaH, and BaN function as four numerical permutations of the Tetragrammaton that the Arizal used to label the four levels of light within Adam Kadmon. By assigning the first general material to SaG, Ramchal indicates that creation began not at the highest possible source but at a specific intermediate grade prepared to produce both essence and garment. The lowest aspect, BaN of SaG of SaG, became the substrate from which the broken vessels of Nekudim would later be reassembled into the world of Tikkun.

Why a single general power preceded every particular

Ramchal frames the unfolding as a governmental order in which a single overall power must precede every detail. The first thing to emerge from the dividing material was a comprehensive principle that contained every later distinction in undifferentiated form. The particulars then issued from that principle in two distinct relations. Some details belonged to it as essence, and those constituted the world of Atzilut. Others belonged to it as auxiliary, and those formed the worlds of Beriyah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah that surround Atzilut and enable it to achieve its purpose.

The distinction between essence and auxiliary carries the entire structure that follows. Atzilut alone retains direct identification with the Divine light, while the three lower worlds clothe that light in successively denser garments. The governmental order Ramchal describes therefore produces a single hierarchy in which every later element occupies a determined place relative to the original general power. Ramchal uses the term governmental order to mark this as a system designed for the purpose of conducting the affairs of creation rather than as a static metaphysical arrangement.

What the garments of Atzilut reveal about evil

The second passage takes the structural distinction between essence and auxiliary and applies it to the problem of evil. The garments of Atzilut, which are the worlds of Beriyah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah, function in the upper structure the way clothing functions in the human form. Clothing remains external to the wearer and reflects choice rather than essence. The Likeness of Man, which Ramchal invokes as the structural template for all reality, places clothing at the outermost layer because the inner body and soul retain their own integrity regardless of what covers them.

The same architecture above produces a sharp claim about evil. The essence of the lights resides in Atzilut, where no flaw and no darkness exist. Beriyah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah are garments in which the lights chose to clothe themselves for the sake of the governmental purpose described in the first passage. Evil exists only on account of those garments and never derives from the essence of the lights. The shells, husks, and forms of concealment that populate the lower worlds remain confined to the outer layers and cannot reach back into the inner radiance from which the lights originally emerged.

How the two passages preserve the integrity of the Divine light

The pairing carries a protective function within the broader Lurianic system. The first passage explains the origin of the material that became the worlds, locating it in a specific aspect of Adam Kadmon and tracing the chain by which Nekudim and the later structures emerged. That account could appear to compromise the unity of the Divine light by introducing distinctions and gradations at the highest level. The second passage answers that concern by insisting that the lights themselves contain no flaw and that the entire architecture of garments was assumed voluntarily for the sake of a purpose. Ramchal preserves the integrity of the Divine light by separating essence from garment at every level of the descent.

The transmission of these passages followed a careful textual path. Ramchal completed Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah before his departure from Padua in 1735, and the manuscript circulated among his Italian and Dutch students during the controversy that surrounded his kabbalistic writings. Print publication came only in 1785 in Korets, four decades after his death in Acre in 1746. Friedlander's nineteenth century edition in Warsaw and the twentieth century editions prepared by the Ramchal Friends Society in Bnei Brak fixed the standard wording, and the work now appears in every major kabbalistic library alongside the writings of the Arizal it was designed to clarify.

Why the two passages belong together as one teaching

The two excerpts form a complete account of how creation produced both structure and freedom. The first establishes the origin of the general material in the lights of SaG and explains the emergence of Atzilut as essence together with Beriyah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah as auxiliary. The second confirms that the auxiliary worlds function as garments rather than as extensions of the inner light, and locates the entire phenomenon of evil within those outer garments alone. Together they describe a system in which the Divine light remains undiminished within Atzilut while the lower worlds carry the burden of concealment that makes free human action possible. The architecture of essence and garment provides the structural foundation for everything that follows in the one hundred and thirty-eight gates of Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah.