אמתטריקס

The Structure of the Worlds – Hishtalshelut (the Chain of Descent) – Angels Hashem Oversees All Things 2. As for His oversight, blessed be He: we already know that He, blessed be His name, knows all, and there is no lack of knowledge with Him at all – not of the future, nor of the present, nor of the past – for all that was and will be is already foreseen before Him from eternity, and nothing is hidden from Him; and all that exists is revealed before Him and known to Him, blessed be He, in all its aspects, and nothing at all is concealed from Him. However, He is said to "oversee" things in that He judges them and issues decrees concerning them, limited within the bounds of the time in which He wishes to bring them about. We will speak more of this later, with Hashem's help. The Chain of Descent of the Divine Influx 3. His influx, however, is His bringing His will, blessed be He, into action, in the very order and gradation that He desires. Now, since He arranged His creatures in an order of gradation and descent, because He desires this order, then just as He wished this chain of descent with respect to the existence of the creatures, so He wishes it with respect to their continued existence and their activities in all their affairs. And in this order He sustains them in all their aspects and bestows upon them what He wished regarding their affairs and relationships. Thus He, blessed be His name, bestows influx upon an angel, and that angel upon the angel beneath it in rank, and so level after level, until the last angel acts in the physical realm to sustain a thing or to bring it into being anew, according to the decree of His will, blessed be He. However, the sustaining of every existing thing, at whatever level, comes only from Him, blessed be He, for He, blessed be His name, sustains the creatures and their chain of descent by His power, each according to its nature. But the bringing of actions into the physical realm, according to the order of existing things and their relationships that we mentioned above – this is done through the gradation we mentioned. The Forces of Nature versus the Decree of Recompense 4. Now the Master, blessed be He, placed in the nature of every appointed overseer that it stand at its post and maintain with might what has been entrusted to it, and that it not be pushed from its post except in the order that the Master, blessed be He, has arranged. For example, the prince (angelic overseer) of the trees will strive and exert himself to preserve his trees; but when the decree comes from Him, blessed be He, the prince of the wind will strengthen the wind according to what is decreed upon him, and the prince of the trees will be pushed back accordingly, and some of his trees will be uprooted accordingly by the force of the wind. In these matters there is much gradation and much detail: for there are the angels who are overseers of physical nature, who maintain all parts of the physical world in their natural laws; and above them are the princes of the decrees of recompense, who move the angels of nature to bring about events according to the decrees – and many details within details, according to the wonders of the hidden ways of His governance, blessed be He. 5. However, He, blessed be His name, oversees all – upper and lower beings, roots and their branches – and constantly directs [everything] toward the general perfection, and for this He causes the whole of creation. And the matter is divided in its particulars according to what is found in their preparedness: these to be pushed away and these to be drawn near, these to be refined and these to rest, each according to what is fitting for him to receive, so as to establish the whole of creation upon perfection. (Derech Hashem – Part 2, Chapter 5) The Spheres and the Stars Influence the World 1. We have already explained in the first part that all matters of the physical world have their root in the separate (spiritual) forces. There these matters are rooted in all the ways they need to be rooted, and afterwards they must be transferred and drawn down into physicality, in the form in which they need to exist there. For this purpose the spheres and their stars were prepared: through them and their revolutions, all those matters that were rooted and prepared above in spirituality are drawn and transferred to physicality here below, and they stand here in the proper form. The number of the stars, their levels and all their divisions were according to what the supernal Wisdom saw to be necessary and fitting for this transfer we mentioned. Thus there flows from the stars the power of sustenance to the physical bodies beneath them, through which their matter is transferred from its aspect above, in the roots, to its aspect below. The Influence of the Stars on Events 2. However, the Creator, blessed be He, engraved yet another matter in these stars: that all the events that befall physical beings and those who attain them, after they have been prepared above, are also drawn down below through them, in the very form in which they must happen to them. For example, life, wealth, wisdom, offspring and all such matters are prepared above in the roots and are transferred below, into the branches, in the proper form, through the stars. This happens through known divisions, special groupings ordained for them, and known revolutions. All the events that befall physical beings of every kind were divided among them, and all physical beings were bound under their dominion according to their orders, to be renewed according to what flows from the celestial array, in accordance with the connection by which each and every person is bound to it. 3. All human beings, too, were subjected to this order, to be renewed according to what is drawn to them from the celestial array. However, it is possible for the outcome of the stars to be annulled by a power stronger and higher than them. On this basis [the Sages] said: "There is no mazal (constellation) for Israel" (Shabbat 156), for the power of His decree and influx, blessed be He, prevails over the power embedded in the influence of the celestial array, and the outcome will be according to the supernal influx and not according to the influence of the array. Horoscope 4. However, the laws of this influence of the stars are also limited, according to what the supernal Wisdom decreed to be fitting. Some of its ways are known according to the orders of the [astral] aspects, and this is what the astrologers grasp. Yet not the whole truth of its orders is revealed in this; therefore the stargazers grasp only some of the future matters, and not completely – all the more so since their outcomes can be annulled, as I have explained. And about this our Sages, of blessed memory, said: "'From what (me'asher) [shall come upon you]' (Isaiah 47:13) – and not all that" (Bereishit Rabbah 85:2). (Derech Hashem – Part 2, Chapter 5) Translated from the Hebrew sources page "מקורות – פרק ג’- חלק ג’- מבנה העולמות" by Roni Ayalon-Hirsch.

Sources – Chapter C – Part 3 – The Structure of the Worlds