Derech Hashem

Derech Hashem – The Way of G-d 2:4:10

And even though as a rule G-d doesn’t directly govern them ¹, He might still do so for our sake. And that would fall under the rubric of means-to-an-end rather than ends themselves which we’d discussed earlier ².

Footnotes:

 ¹                I.e., He has appointed angelic administrators over them as we saw in 2:4:8.

²                See 2:3:12 above and our note 7 there.

(c) 2017 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

Rabbi Feldman’s new annotated translation of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag’s “Introduction to the Zohar” is available as “The Kabbalah of Self” on Kindle here. His annotated translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here and his annotated translation of Rabbeinu Yonah’s “The Gates of Repentance” is available here.

He has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal” that can be subscribed to.

Derech Hashem – The Way of G-d 2:4:9

So, G-d has allotted to us the repairing and elevation of all of creation ¹, as we’d indicated ². And He allocated all of His supervision of the world to the things we do ³, if you will ⁴, having given us the ability to grant light ⁵ and bestowance ⁶, or to hide and conceal ⁷, G-d forbid.

Others’ actions, though, neither bolster nor weaken creation ⁸, nor do they reveal G-d’s presence or hide it. Their actions do, though, affect themselves for better or for worse, either bodily by strengthening or weakening them, or spiritually.

Footnotes:

¹                After Adam and Eve’s error.

²                See 2:4:3 above.

³                See Zohar at the beginning of Parshat Bo as well as Nephesh Hachaim 1:3-4.

⁴                This withholding of a bold statement of utter human control of things is meant to underscore the undeniable fact that while G-d allocated a lot of control to our actions, at bottom, He’s in complete control of things (see 2:8:1 below and Da’at Tevunot 9),

⁵                I.e., growth,

⁶                I.e., blessings.

⁷                G-d’s presence.

⁸                Still and all see Da’at Tevunot 126 where Ramchal makes the distinct point that all of creation plays a role in bolstering creation, underscoring the point by saying that “everything is intertwined, and everything is needed to fulfill the mission that G-d had in mind when He created the universe”. Also see Pirkei Avot at the end of Ch. 6.

(c) 2017 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

Rabbi Feldman’s new annotated translation of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag’s “Introduction to the Zohar” is available as “The Kabbalah of Self” on Kindle here. His annotated translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here and his annotated translation of Rabbeinu Yonah’s “The Gates of Repentance” is available here.

He has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal” that can be subscribed to.

Derech Hashem – The Way of G-d 2:4:8

G-d appointed 70 angelic administrators ¹ to oversee and govern the other nations in detail, albeit under His purview, while He Himself only does so broadly ².

As such, it’s written, “you alone have I known among all the families of the world” (Amos 3:2) ³. That’s not to say that G-d is unaware of them: He’s intimately aware of them as He is of everything and everyone ⁴. The point is that He doesn’t supervise or impact upon the particular details of their lives, as we’ll see below ⁵.

Footnotes:

¹                     Every nation was said to have its “genius” – its unique nature, gift, and contribution to humanity – which was said to be derived for its “genie” or “guardian spirit” in antiquity, all of which is close to the subject at hand. Ramchal’s point seems to be that a nation’s angelic administrator epitomises that nation’s character and type and thus sees to it that it be brought about and maintained.

                  See 2:4:3 which discusses the division of the world into 70 primal nations (aside from our own). Also, see Klach Pitchei Chochma 31 and the end of Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at.

²                     2:4:1-7 above serve as a sort of prelude to this section and to 2:4:9. For the entire thrust of Part 2 is on Divine Providence, and while we’d learned how G-d interacts with the Jewish Nation up to now, Ramchal is now touching upon that here in relation to others.

His point here is that G-d only interacts with them broadly. Yet in Da’at Tevunot 36 Ramchal indicates that G-d Himself oversees all things and all people in great detail! That’s quite a discrepancy,

As such we’d say that whereas G-d has His angels tend to others for the “meanwhile”, in the end He alone will have proven to have overseen each and every entity without exception – including the 70 Nations and the administrators that ruled over them.

Also see 2:1:1.

³                 It’s important to stress that the rest of this verse reads, “therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities”, which underscores the responsibility that goes with chosen-ness. And what’s soon to follow, which underscores the continued relationship that G-d has with others as well,  likewise lessens the gleam of chosen-ness.

⁴                     See 2:5:2 below.

⁵                     See 2:5:3, but especially 2:6.

(c) 2017 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

Rabbi Feldman’s new annotated translation of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag’s “Introduction to the Zohar” is available as “The Kabbalah of Self” on Kindle here. His annotated translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here and his annotated translation of Rabbeinu Yonah’s “The Gates of Repentance” is available here.

He has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal” that can be subscribed to.

Derech Hashem – The Way of G-d 2:4:7

Their righteous earn a place in the world to come, too ¹. But their experience there would be unlike our own ².

They’ll serve a supplementary and subservient role there, though, like clothing to a body ³. As that is all they could ever hope for, given the phenomena we’d cited above ⁴.

Footnotes: 

¹                     See Sanhedrin 105a, Hilchot Teshuva 3:3; though also see Zohar Chadash 78d and T.Y. Berachot 9a.

A “righteous gentile” is defined classically as a non-Jew who accepts the seven Noachite Mitzvahs (see 2:4:6) with certain conditions (see Hilchot Malchim 8:11). In any event, this underscores the idea that an individual can be judged for his own actions, rather than one of a multitude of descendants of a particular “branch”.

²                     Thanks to the merits of our ancestors and to the eternal covenant that G-d and we entered into. See more about this in Avodat Hakodesh 2:41, Reishit Chochma “Yirah” 13, and in a number of other traditional sources.

³                     This arresting image can either be off-putting (a piece of clothing rather a full human being) or perhaps even flattering (along the lines of “clothing makes the man”), but Ramchal has a wholly unexpected take on it in Adir Bamarom. He speaks there (p. 609) of humankind having been born with souls and clothing at first, and that the latter had to be removed once Adam and Eve sinned and to be “converted” (i.e., returned to their native purity by becoming a part of the Jewish Nation), which would ultimately happen (see p. 353 there) and be the ultimate act of rectification.

⁴                     That is, given our people’s role in the wake of Adam and Eve’s sin and in the course of G-d’s intentions for humanity.

(c) 2017 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

Rabbi Feldman’s new annotated translation of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag’s “Introduction to the Zohar” is available as “The Kabbalah of Self” on Kindle here. His annotated translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here and his annotated translation of Rabbeinu Yonah’s “The Gates of Repentance” is available here.

He has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal” that can be subscribed to.

Derech Hashem – The Way of G-d 2:4:6

That’s not to say that non-Jews are dispensable, though, G-d forbid. No one is. It’s just that they were assigned a lesser role, but only as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s error ¹. Still and all, having been created in the image of G-d ², they too have souls, though unlike our own ³. And they too were bestowed with some mitzvahs that provide them spiritual and material well-being as well, which are known as the “Seven Noachite Mitzvahs” ⁴.

In any event, the way things would have been had Adam and Eve not sinned, and the way things are now that they did sin was all set in place from the first ⁵. As such, their relative status and assignment are like all other instances of harm and retribution that come about as a consequence of one thing or another, as our sages point out ⁶.

Footnotes:

¹           See Adir Bamarom p. 469.

²                See Pirkei Avot 3:14.

³                Zohar 47a.

⁴                See Genesis 2:24, 9:37, Sanhedrin 56b, and M.T. Hilchot Melachim 9:1. Also see Adir Bamarom p. 380 and Klach Pitchei Chochma 30.

The seven mitzvahs include bans against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, incest and related sexual deviations, robbery, and against eating flesh torn from a live animal; the seventh mitzvah is the imperative to establish a judicial system to enforce the other six.

⁵                This accentuates the point that Adam and Eve were indeed free to choose to sin or not, since “alternative universes” were arranged from the first to accommodate either reality.

⁶                Avodah Zarah 5a.

(c) 2017 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

Rabbi Feldman’s new annotated translation of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag’s “Introduction to the Zohar” is available as “The Kabbalah of Self” on Kindle here. His annotated translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here and his annotated translation of Rabbeinu Yonah’s “The Gates of Repentance” is available here.

He has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal” that can be subscribed to.

Derech Hashem – The Way of G-d 2:4:5

Now, just as all of Adam and Eve’s descendants were originally divided into source “trees” with “branches”, each subsequent “tree” was able to yield its own “branches” which could then produce their own off-springs ¹.

Abraham’s “branches” ² could only number 600,000, which is the number of Jews who left Egypt, received the Torah at Mount Sinai ³, and inherited the Land of Israel ⁴, who thus comprised the essential Jewish Nation. All Jews who descended from them are considered their “branches” and off-spring.

The other nations were given one more opportunity to achieve their spiritual potential — when the Torah was given to us and they, too, were offered it ⁵. Had they in fact accepted it, they’d have been given the same spiritual potential as the Jewish people, but they declined it. Their fate was then sealed and the gate ⁶ was permanently closed ⁷. Still and all as we said, any individual non-Jew can decide to attach him- or herself onto Abraham’s “tree” ⁸.

Footnotes:

¹                Without restriction.

²                On the other hand.

³                Ramchal spoke of the centrality of the revelation at Mount Sinai in a number of his works. See for example Da’at Tevunot 78, 159, Tikkunim Chadashim 21, 33, 42, and Klach Pitchei Chochma 30.

⁴                He also spoke of the centrality of the Land of Israel in several of his works. See for example Adir Bamarom p. 235; also see Ma’amar Hachochma (Tephillat Rosh Hashanah) for the relationship between it and the Jewish Nation.

⁵                See Avoda Zara 2b.

⁶                Of access to that special level.

⁷                See 2:4:2 where it’s said that “humanity has been granted the freedom to choose to ascend to a very great level. It’s just that there’s a time limit within which we can do that”.

⁸                That’s to say that the Jewish Nation was purposely set up from the start to be a small, “tight” corps of agents of change and rectification which can take on new members but will never be large.

(c) 2017 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

Rabbi Feldman’s new annotated translation of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag’s “Introduction to the Zohar” is available as “The Kabbalah of Self” on Kindle here. His annotated translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here and his annotated translation of Rabbeinu Yonah’s “The Gates of Repentance” is available here.

He has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal” that can be subscribed to.

Derech Hashem – The Way of G-d 2:4:4

But G-d graciously saw to it that others could leave their root nation and join the family of Abraham if they’d care to ¹. For G-d had made Abraham the father of converts ², telling him that “all the families of the earth will be blessed through” him (Genesis 12:3).

If they don’t try to do that, though, then they’ll just naturally stay aligned with their root nation.

Footnotes:

¹                Thus, becoming a Jew comes down to leaving one’s own people and attaching onto the Jewish people (rather than only onto the Jewish religion). Like any other one, the Jewish people has its own ways and values, but rather than being molded by climate, circumstance, and the like, Jewish ways and values are rooted in Abraham’s dreams for his family of drawing close to G-d.

In fact, our sages pointed out that we went into – and continue to be in — exile in order to accept converts (Pesachim 87b).

See Ramchal’s insights into the place of converts in Otzrot Ramchal p. 149 and in Adir Bamarom pp. 353, 469.

Interestingly enough, a Jew can never leave the Jewish people himself (even if he “converts” or strays from Jewish practices or values), given that a Jew is always a Jew (see Sanhedrin 44a).

²                See Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 6.

Derech Hashem – The Way of G-d 2:4:3

Recall that originally there’d been root souls and offshoots ¹. The root souls were to have regained Adam and Eve’s original high spiritual stature, their offshoots were to follow in their wake ², and all of humanity was to have remained on that exalted plane ³.

But there were to have been two time periods for this to have worked itself out, though. There was a fixed period in antiquity during which the gates ⁴ were left wide open and when everyone could have become a root him- or herself and been worthy of being on the level of Adam and Eve before their sin. And all of his or her descendants would have been on that level, too. This opportunity was available from the time of Adam and Eve themselves up to the time of the destruction of the Tower of Babel ⁵.

For, there were indeed people at that time who strove for personal perfection, like Enoch ⁶, Methuselah ⁷, Shem ⁸, and Eber ⁹. They and others of their caliber could very well have become root souls to their particular offshoots, who’d then have served as bearers of G-d’s message for mankind, as we Jews do. But none of them did. Only Abraham, the father of the Jewish Nation, did, which is why only we, his descendants, came to inherit his spiritual bounty ¹⁰.

There eventually came to be 70 primal nations in all ¹¹. And each one plays its own particular role in the larger scheme of things ¹² while yet remaining on the level of humankind in its fallen state.

Thus while mankind may seem the same as it always has been there’s actually a profound difference between then and now. For, again, up to the time of the Tower of Babel all of humankind existed in the age of potential root souls and was dealt with accordingly; while afterwards, a new era began — the era of offshoots, which we’re still in the midst of.

Footnotes:

¹                See 2:4:2 above.

²                I.e., to have “inherited” their high status, if you will.

³                But that would not have guaranteed that they would have achieved the ultimate spiritual status that Adam and Eve would have reached had they not sinned. See Adir Bamarom p. 29 for a discussion of that ultimate level in this context as well as note 3 to 2:4:2 above.

⁴                … of possibility and heavenly down flow …

⁵                See Genesis 1:26 to 11:1-9. Abraham, who’ll be cited below, lived within this time period, as is indicated in Breishit Rabbah 38:6 and elsewhere.

See Ramchal’s remarks about this in Ma’amar HaGeulah.

⁶                Genesis 5:21-24.

⁷                Ibid. 5:25.

⁸                See Breishit Rabbah 63:8.

⁹                See Seder Olam 1. Also See Adir Bamarom p. 13 about Shem and Eber.

¹⁰              Ramchal’s overarching point here is that we are the Chosen People only because we are the offshoots of Abraham who was singled out among others in his primal epoch to serve as a root soul. We ourselves would not have been the Chosen People had he not succeeded since there’s nothing inherently worthy about us to have earned that merit on our own. The Enochites and Methusalites could have been, but that didn’t happen.

Ramchal wrote extensively about the difference between Abraham and the righteous individuals who preceded him. See Adir Bamarom pp. 8,29,31,218, Biurim Al Tanach, Parshat Lech Lecha (as found in Otsrot Ramchal pp. 18, 20), and Messilat Yesharim Ch. 4.

¹¹              With many subsequent subdivisions. See Genesis Ch. 10 and 1 Chronicles 1:5-23.

¹²              See Sukkah 55a and Sotah 36b.

(c) 2017 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

Rabbi Feldman’s new annotated translation of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag’s “Introduction to the Zohar” is available as “The Kabbalah of Self” on Kindle here. His annotated translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here and his annotated translation of Rabbeinu Yonah’s “The Gates of Repentance” is available here.

He has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal” that can be subscribed to.

Derech Hashem – The Way of G-d 2:4:2

Adam and Eve — who were everyone’s ancestors, of course ¹ — were on a far greater spiritual level than any one of us, as we’d already explained ². They deserved great homage and eternal life, and had they not sinned they’d have achieved greater and greater heights ³.

They’d then have had as many descendants as G-d saw fit for there to be, and they’d have all delighted in His benevolence along with Adam and Eve. It’s just that those descendants were to be comprised of different levels in that some would have been primary and others secondary, “roots” and “branches” ⁴.

But Adam and Eve descended far downward when they sinned and became sullied with all sorts of murkiness and impurity, as we’d also pointed out ⁵. As a consequence their descendants – we ourselves — slid to a level that almost precluded them from reaching the exalted and immortal level originally due them.

That’s not to say that we’re incapable of ascending higher than the level we’d sunk to, or that Adam and Eve were denied the chance to return to their original level even though they’d descended so. Humanity has been granted the freedom to choose to ascend to a very great level. It’s just that there’s a time limit within which we can do that, not unlike the time limit each one of us has in this world to rectify ourselves and attain a place in the World to Come ⁶; after all, everything that requires effort has a time limit.

Footnotes:

¹                This point will matter later on when it’s explained why the Jewish Nation alone was chosen.

²                See 1:3:6-8.

Ramchal depicts them in Adir Bamarom (p. 29) as being so pure at first that they could have single-handedly finished off the order of perfection that G-d set in motion. All wrong would have been turned to right there and then, as will eventually happen, and all of creation would have been utterly purified.

³                See 1:3:13 for our connection to that, and Da’at Tevunot 40, 126 for more about their sin.

⁴                I.e., major family lines and minor ones.

⁵                See 1:3:8 and 1:4:2.

⁶                See 1:3:3.

(c) 2017 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

Rabbi Feldman’s new annotated translation of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag’s “Introduction to the Zohar” is available as “The Kabbalah of Self” on Kindle here. His annotated translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here and his annotated translation of Rabbeinu Yonah’s “The Gates of Repentance” is available here.

He has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal” that can be subscribed to.

Derech Hashem – The Way of G-d 2:4:1

One of the most profoundly significant ways G-d interacts with humanity is by differentiating between ourselves, the Jews, and other people ¹.

Now, we’re all the same on the surface, of course ², yet when it comes to the concerns of the Torah our people is set apart from all others ³. We’ll do what we can here to explain this as best as we can and to show how we’re all alike and how we’re different.

Footnotes:

 ¹                That is, while the previous chapter dwelt on how G-d interfaces with individuals, this one will focus in on how G-d interacts with the Jewish Nation as a whole, His “chosen people” (see Deuteronomy 7:6), His “kingdom of priests and holy nation” (Exodus 9:16), as opposed to how He relates to others.

²             Aside from being comprised of the same physical components, we have deeper connections, too: all of us have a spiritual side, we’re all given free will, we all have the potential to be good or bad, etc.

³                 When Shakespeare’s famous Jewish character, Shylock, protested anti-Jewish discrimination by intoning, “Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?” (“Merchant of Venus” Act 3, Scene 1) his point was that we Jews are just like other people in many, many ways, and that we’re not to be feared or loathed. But in a certain sense, Shylock was off-the-mark (for he was mouthing Shakespeare’s admirable indictment against anti-Semitism and wasn’t addressing the themes we’ll be dwelling upon here.)

For despite all appearances — despite the fact that most people would be hard pressed to pick a Jew out in a crowd with any certainty (unless someone was wearing the tell-tale outward signs of a Jew) — we Jews are different. Take away one fold after another, one layer after another of physical, emotional, and social likeness to others, and somehow all that gives way to a different breed.

For like every other one, the Jewish Nation has its unique national genius which sets it apart from the others. The point is though that our national genius touches on a very special phenomenon: the ability to draw close to G-d through His Torah. For we Jews can draw close to Him in ways no one else can, thanks to the Torah. The fact that we might be attractive, intelligent, gifted, and the like isn’t what sets us apart: it’s that all-important potential to draw close to G-d that way.

Many of us — Jew and non-Jew — will squirm at the idea and grow ill at ease, since it’s a decidedly un-modern one that’s awash in political incorrectness. But be that as it may, the idea isn’t our own; it’s stated outright in the Torah.

We’ll thus spend time exploring the implications of our distinctiveness, including the ideas that every other nation could have wound up being “the Jewish Nation” had things worked out differently in antiquity; the idea that Abraham alone deserved to be the root of the Jewish Nation, and no one else; the fact that other nations had been given a “second chance” later on but didn’t take advantage of it; that other peoples thus function differently on a cosmic level; and more.

At bottom there’s no reason to grow arrogant at our standing. It has nothing to do with us per se and everything to do with our G-d-given task in this world.

(c) 2017 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

Rabbi Feldman’s new annotated translation of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag’s “Introduction to the Zohar” is available as “The Kabbalah of Self” on Kindle here. His annotated translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here and his annotated translation of Rabbeinu Yonah’s “The Gates of Repentance” is available here.

He has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal” that can be subscribed to.