The solution (Part 4)

Ramchal explains some of this dynamic in his comments to Petach 27 where he offers, among other things, that “the Ein Sof has the unique property of possessing ultimate perfection, as a result of which He is entirely good…. Wrong can only exist when His perfection is concealed, and as soon as His perfection is revealed, wrong ceases to exist…. In order to (eventually) reveal His sovereignty in the clearest way, He (first) concealed it and instituted a way of imperfection so as to create and govern imperfect creatures. This is the (essence of the) trace.

“This trace came into being through the concealment of (utter) perfection, and it has many deficiencies and imperfections rooted in it. The truth is that the intention behind these deficiencies is thereby to make it possible for God’s creatures to exist on different, relative levels, and to draw closer to perfection gradually, level by level.

“Reward and punishment indicate a lack of perfection, for in a state of utter perfection, everything would be good. With the concealment of perfection, God’s governance itself hangs in the balance (as it must be decided) whether to confer goodness or its opposite, depending on humanity’s deeds in the lower world. This phenomenon is rooted in the trace, which contains everything connected with reward on the one hand and punishment on the other …. But things could have gone along those lines forever, with the righteous receiving their reward and the wrongful being punished … were it not for the fact that the trace is governed by the Ein Sof.”

(c) 2011 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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One response to “The solution (Part 4)

  1. Pingback: Ramchal on all of this in Klach (3) « Ramchal

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