אלו ואלו דברי אלהים חייםThree Worlds, Three Answers

elu va-elu divrei Elohim ḥayyimIn Gamatria ↗

Three opinions, three worlds, and not one of them wrong.

The first of four premises: every Jew must accept the Oral Torah, and Irgas, citing the Ramban, counts the secrets of creation and of the chariot as part of it. Following Cordovero's Pardes, he separates two people. One who never learned of the sefirot and believes simply in the One is no heretic. One who is shown them and denies them is. Belief also means trusting every word of the Sages; if one seems strange, the lack is ours. Even their disputes are all true. Beit Shammai say heaven was created first, Beit Hillel say earth, and R. Shimon bar Yoḥai says both at once. Each is right in a different world: Nekudim, where the sefirot emerged in order and Malkhut, 'earth', came last; Akudim, where Malkhut came first; Berudim, where both were mended together.

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