Daat Tevunot

Da’at Tevunot 3:7 (¶ 118 [middle])

1.

               We’d do well to take something into consideration, Ramchal adds here. It’s that just because something or someone is imperfect doesn’t mean that it’s utterly wrongful or bad; for “something could be lacking (in one positive factor or another) and thus be imperfect and not categorically good, yet not be bad” ¹.

.              After all, even angels are imperfect beings, as lofty as they are ², since by definition no one other than G-d Almighty Himself is perfect ³. Angels differ from each, with some loftier than others to a kind of subtle and uncanny degree we can’t fathom. Yet none of them are out-and-out wrongful or bad. As they never experience jealousy or hatred for example, they haven’t a yetzer harah, and they never become ill or die.

2.

               But then consider humankind. We’re certainly less perfect than angels and more disposed to moral and physical weakness. Some of us are indeed wrongful and even thoroughly wicked, since we do have a yetzer harah; and we’re subject to illness and death.

And there are lesser beings than us like beasts and animals that certainly have their blemishes, vulnerabilities, and repulsive sides, let alone their intellectual and spiritual restrictions. Yet they don’t consciously and willfully do harm. And there are certain purely toxic non-material entities like angels of destruction, spirits of impurity and the like, spirits of “the other side” ⁴ etc. that are exemplars of pure  albeit instinctive rather than intentional evil.

               The important thing to realize, though, for our purposes is that actual wrong and evil are products of a long downward spiral of imperfections, one after the other in succession, which end in pure wrongfulness. That’s to say that the more imperfection that’s allowed to spiral downward step by step, the more wrong and evil there will be in the world ⁵.

.

3.

               Understand that there were no such things as imperfections or wrongfulness before G-d fashioned the system of cause-and-effect and the like that defines reality as we know it ⁶. After all, G-d’s realm is utterly and gloriously beyond all of that.

               But once G-d consciously and purposefully set the system of gradations in place, though ⁷, which He decided should function to whatever degree He wanted it to, it became possible for wrong and evil to exist ⁸.

Footnotes:

¹                  Ramchal is sweetening the frightening tone of the last chapter (and others, too) that speaks of imperfection leading to destruction, and the like. He’ll make another point about this truism below, but many a student of Mussar and very many sincere souls who are driven to drawing close to G-d would do well to take this to heart. That is, just because an individual is somehow flawed doesn’t mean he’s tainted throughout. Each and every one of us is multifarious and incongruous; and most of us are simultaneously shameful and laudable depending on the angle from which we’re looked at.

²                  Ramchal discusses the topic of angels (both the benevolent sort spoken of here, and the malevolent ones cited below) in a number of his works: see Ginzei Ramchal pp. 27, 33, 35, 41, 131-132, 153, 277; Messilat Yesharim Ch. 6; Adir Bamarom pp. 111, 195, 260; and Derech Hashem 1:5:2,9, 3:1:6.

³                  See 3:13 below for a comparison and contrast between humankind and angels.

⁴                  Something wrongful that’s said to emanate from “the other side” emanates from the “side” of reality that is “other” than G-dly and holy.

⁵                  That is, once the “Pandora’s Box” which is chock full of all sorts of imperfections in a long row is opened, pure wrongfulness and evil will certainly manifest eventually.

⁶                  See 1:15, 1:18: and 2:3 for discussions about the specific systems that G-d put into place in the world as it stands now.

⁷                  See Klach Pitchei Chochma 30.

⁸                  The point is that G-d set up a system of cause and effect that can spiral downward, which can then end in sheer evil, though it doesn’t necessarily have to (which explains the existence of imperfect people who are still and all not evil as discussed at the beginning of the chapter).

See Clallim Rishonim 5, 3:22 below, and Klach Pitchei Chochma 47.

(c) 2020 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.

Da’at Tevunot 3:6 (¶ 118 [beginning])

1.

Ramchal reiterates here ¹ that wrong is a created entity ² that was only designed to last for as long as G-d wanted it to, and then be undone. He’ll now lay out some of the details of that.

His first point is that G-d originally established the possibility of everything — but perfect phenomena ³ — to be undone. That being so, he argues, the world we now know of can be undone, since it’s imperfect. But once the Ultimate Future comes about with its perfected heaven and earth ⁴, the world will ultimately not be undone ⁵.

2.

He’ll now explain some of the mechanics behind this. The original emanation that brought about the sort of imperfect reality that we now know of that will be undone ⁶ will not bring about the Ultimate Future. For that original emanation was only implanted with the ability to bring about imperfect things. After all, didn’t it bring about the sorts of people we are, who are a combination of right and wrong, good and bad?

That emanation could only allow for the eventual separating out of wrongfulness rather than its undoing ⁷ by Divine decree.  It doesn’t actually allow for things to be undone as they stand now but rather to be bound by G-d’s decree that they not be undone yet, but to function instead under the rules that He established for the world.

In fact, that original emanation was designed to allow things to grow stronger in effect sometimes, and weaken at other times, as G-d would deem necessary. And so we have the sort of world we live in now with its combination of right and wrong, but with not enough wrong to cause it to be undone — until it would be, given that “all that exists now will eventually deteriorate” ⁸, as Ramchal so ominously puts it, when G-d decides that that’s to happen.

3.

So again, when G-d brought about the original emanation, He implanted within it the ability to allow things to eventually be undone. That’s why an inherently imperfect universe exists now, and why the world has within it the ability to allow for wrong as well as annihilation.

That’s not to say that that first emanation was faulty or incapable of “doing better”, so to speak, by the way. In fact, what’s due to come about in the Ultimate Reality could have come about from the first under the influence of that original emanation; it’s just that that emanation was specifically implanted with the ability to bring about imperfect things

But – and here’s the point — a second emanation was to also come about as well which will also allow for existence, but which will forestall annihilation until the right time.        

As a result, while “the state of being undone itself will not yet itself have been undone”, as Ramchal put it, wrong will have been given boundaries and made to serve the purpose it was meant to ⁹. There will nevertheless come a time when all wrong will be undone and only perfect and eternal things will exist ¹⁰.

4.

Don’t forget, though, what as we’d pointed out a number of times before ¹¹ — that a major principle upon which the world stands is G-d’s either “hiding His Countenance” which results in imperfection, wrong and injustice, or His “revealing” it which results in perfection and righteousness.

Our point here, Ramchal indicates, is that wrong is the greatest example of G-d’s “hiding His Countenance”. For, given that G-d wanted to create man to be a combination of body and soul, He utilizes these two principles to enable man to eventually achieve perfection, even though man can sometimes be weak and other times strong, exalted or lowly and the like, since that is all in keeping with G-d’s ultimate plans, despite appearances. 

Footnotes:

¹          Also see 3:1 above.

²          And so it’s neither eternal nor is it as powerful as G-d, as some erroneously think.

³          Like souls, Divine emanations, the world of the Ultimate Future (which ia spoken of below) and the like.

⁴          See Isaiah 65:17 where it’s written “I will create new heavens and a new earth”.

⁵          This is subtly alluding to the esoteric idea of the imperfect body and perfect soul conjoining in the World to Come when both will exist forever (see 2:1 above and our note 6 there).

Also see 3:19 about everything eventually being pure goodness, and Adir Bamarom p. 397 about the fact that wrong as it is now will prove to be not actually wrong but rather only apparently (not genuinely) so.

⁶          See 3:2 above.

⁷          See 3:22 below for an explanation of this.

⁸          With the exception of perfect things as indicated above.

⁹          I. e., to allow for free will. See 1:11 above.

¹⁰         Let’s continue to follow the “bouncing ball” here.

As we said in our first footnote to 3:4, Ramchal’s aim is to present the whys and wherefores of wrong and injustice, which he did by first discussing the emanation that lead to the creation and maintenance of the world (3:2). From there he went on to speak of the place of G-d’s will within that emanation (i.e., of the fact that G-d is always allowing for whatever is going on – even instances of wrong and injustice) (3:3). Then see note 3 to 3:5 about a discussion of the potential for wrong and injustice in the world, as well as 3:4 which addressed the interface between the potential for wrong and the Divine Will worked through that emanation.

At this point Ramchal explains the existence of wrong as being dependent on the fact that that original emanation would only allow for the world’s temporary existence with a potential for imperfection and thus wrong but that a second emanation will eventually undo that reality and bring on perfection.

There’s a profound discussion of the makeup and implications of these two systems of emanation in Clallim Rishonim 12.

Ramchal will now reintroduce another major factor in the playing out of right and wrong.

¹¹         See 2:5 as well as the end of 3:5 above, etc.

(c) 2019 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.

Da’at Tevunot 3:5 (¶s 116 [end] – 117)

1.

              Ramchal says that he’s going to expand upon things he’d said above ¹ and reveal things that are “deep” about “the very makeup of the universe” which will prove to be true “throughout its various time-frames” ².

              The overarching principle is this, he says: At bottom G-d wants to emanate His goodness upon us, so He brought about a mechanism for the emission of light and emanations from His being that would be appropriate for us ³.

2.

              G-d originally meant for it to be an emanation of sheer holiness ⁴ and for the eventual consequences of it to be holy, too, like angels. Thus, Ramchal remarks, the main reason why G-d brought about this emanation was for us to eventually enjoy an element of His own holiness ⁵.

              But, since G-d specifically wanted a lesser, lower world to exist, He saw to it that that emanation would be diminished and would bring about lower, material phenomena ⁶, despite the fact that that’s clearly a downgrading of the emanation’s nature and was not the reason it was created in the first place ⁷.

              Thus ironically, the coarse and material things that we see in the world that were produced by these emanations are in fact a diminution and a degradation of this mechanism which is from G-d Himself, who is the source of perfection and holiness.

              Nevertheless, it was G-d’s plan to cover-over His emanations with darkness for the meanwhile, until He will see to it that the emanation will no longer be covered-over, and reality itself will prove to be “holy to G-d” ⁸. That is, the emanation will continue to be covered-over that way as long as we function in this realm ⁹. But that those covers will eventually be stripped away.

              Thus we learn that the impetus behind all of the various twists and turns of time and human history is to vary and to eventually fully elevate it until the world will achieve its ultimate goal of allowing for all of creation to be holy.

3.

              The point of the matter is firstly that G-d allowed for an emanation to emit from Himself to us whose purpose was to draw holiness down to us from Him. Secondly, that He created mechanisms that were to allow for lesser and lower emanations despite the emanations’ inherent holiness ¹⁰. And thirdly, that He created within this emanation itself the various instances of ruination we’d mentioned, and He rooted all of this in the eventual revelation of His supreme sovereignty as we’d cited ¹¹.              

              Thus, all of these lesser things are a product and fundamental element of G-d’s having hidden His “countenance”, while His eventual revelation of His supreme sovereignty will ultimately result in the stripping away of these limitations ¹².

Footnotes:

¹                About the place and makeup of wrong and injustice, and specifically about its being a product of the “emanation” cited above (albeit a weakened version of it as we’ll see).

²                Frankly, could any student of truth, meaning, and ultimate purpose turn his or her head away when someone of Ramchal’s caliber says something like that?

³                One point is that this mechanism has to be tailored to our beings, as too much light and goodness would obliterate us and too little would barely maintain us. The other is that this mechanism isn’t at all intrinsic to the universe: it had to have been created. For, everything but everything — each moment, each phenomenon, each life, each spectacle, each wilt — each and every instance of this and that from time immemorial to time immemorial is rooted in and sustained by emanations from G-d’s own Being.

              It’s also important to understand that this discussion purposefully follows the one in 3:4 above about G-d having created “potentials” and “actualizations”, as his overarching point here is that wrong, evil, injustice, and the like were always potential in the creation of the universe and in G-d’s plans for it; and that what can’t be denied either is that G-d allowed for it to be actualized (for His own good reasons and by means of the diminished emanations discussed below).

⁴                See 2:5 above about the fact that holiness is a consequence of G-d’s shining His “countenance” upon us, which is spoken of below.

              Also see Clallim Rishonim 1.

⁵                See 3:10 below about this occurring in The World to Come.

              And see Ch. 1 of Messilat Yesharim.

⁶                That are oftentimes un-G-dly, wrongful and utterly unholy.

⁷                Which was to allow for a full-flowering of His beneficence.

              That is, despite the fact that G-d’s beneficence is boundless and lush, He still and all tempered and curbed it — and left it on what we might call a “brown-out”, a less than optimal level — in order to allow for some simply earthly and mundane, and even wrongful and unjust things to go on, which is our concern here.

              See 1:15 above.

⁸                See Leviticus 27:30 and especially Deuteronomy 14:2. Also see 4:10 below.

              See Ramchal’s Ma’amar Hareusin, Ma’amar Hayichud, and Adir Bamarom pp. 440-441 for a fuller, kabalistic discussion of the implications of this all, which helps to explain just why Ramchal refers to this all as a “deep” phenomenon that’s true of “the very makeup of the universe” throughout its “various time-frames”.

⁹                I.e., the realm that Ramchal refers to in the text is termed the era of Divine service, which is to say, the realm in which we continue to serve G-d through the mitzvah-system

¹⁰              Which are nevertheless appropriate to our world’s needs.

¹¹              See 1:3 above, etc. Also see Klach Pitchei Chochma 39.

¹²              See 3:3 above about G-d hiding His “countenance” as well as 3:8 below.

              Some unnecessary repetition and redundancy follows in the text of this chapter which Rabbi Yoseph Spinner has discovered isn’t found in the first edition of Da’at Tevunot, so we’ll end this chapter here.

(c) 2019 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.

Da’at Tevunot 3:4 (¶ 116 [beg.])

1.

            Ramchal is about to offer something that will serve as a prelude to what’s to follow ¹. It’s that even though G-d certainly had the ability from the first to create a universe before He actually created it, He still and all can’t be said to have had a mere “potential” for doing it which then had to be “actualized” ².

            In fact, believing that He only potentially had that ability and that it had to be actualized is one of the mistaken assumptions made by those who believed that the universe is eternal ³.

2.

            The truth of the matter is that since it’s simply impossible for us to comprehend anything about G-d Himself ⁴ before He created the universe ⁵, it follows then that we can’t speak about states of “potentiality” or of “actualization”, since that would necessitate arguments about things passing from a “potential” state of before creation to one of them being “actually created” afterwards, and we’re not equipped to do that.

            What’s true instead is that G-d created the notions and realities of “potential” and “actualization” along with everything else at the point of creation, and He then used that system to set everything in linear space and time ⁶.

            That’s why we’re taught that “(The phrase) ’In the beginning’ ⁷ is also a statement of creation” (Rosh Hashanah 32a), even though it’s different from all the others ⁸. Because the phrase “In the beginning” refers to the universe in toto in its potential state before it was actualized.

            it’s just that once G-d created the potential state, everything then actualized by means of the aforementioned “emanations”.

Footnotes:

¹                Let’s quickly lay out the flow of ideas here so far and where they’ll lead. Recall that the overarching subject at hand is the whys and wherefores of wrong and injustice (see 3:1). Along the way we discussed the “emanations” that G-d uses to manage the cosmos (3:2) which will be cited below and play a major role in the creation of wrong and injustice. We then learned about the role of G-d’s will in those emanations (3:3), and we’re about to dwell on another truism that will help explain the existence of wrong and injustice.

            All of this seeming obfuscation is unavoidable, we’re afraid. For as we’d indicated very early on, one has to keep his “eye on the ball” when studying Da’at Tevunot (see 1:1:1), as so much is discussed in depth here that’s of such importance that a lot of groundwork has to be laid in order to understand the truths  to be revealed.

            Much of what’s touched on in this chapter will be discussed in 7:11 below, and was cited to a degree in 1:19:2 above. Also see Moreh Nevuchim 2: 14, 18.

²                He can’t be said to have changed from “being potentially able to” create the universe to “actually able to”, as His pristine self doesn’t experience change.

³                Those who believed that G-d had a latent trait that could only be actualized if a universe existed would then argue that since He’s eternal, then a universe in which He could eventually manifest that trait had to have always existed, too. But that’s not so.

⁴                And His “environment”.

⁵                Ramchal discussed this before; see 2:7 above for example. His point in repeating it here is to underscore the fact that even though we’re discussing the pre-creation state of things, we’re still and all not touching upon His inherent self.

⁶                The idea of things being purposefully made to proceed from “potential” to “actual” is discussed here because the analogous idea of things proceeding from “cause” to “effect” — which is a major pattern that G-d uses in His management of the universe — will be cited in 3:5 below. The point again is that all of that had to have been created outright; it isn’t an inherent part of reality.

            The other point is that their creation underscores just how radically thorough the act of creation was. We’re conditioned to thinking that there has never been a time when there wasn’t “time” (or, the notions of “before” and “after”, “potential” and actual, and “cause” and effect”) and that there’ll never be a time without any of that, as if they were all set and fundamental elements of reality. In fact, we’re also conditioned to think of “reality” as we know it to be a fundamental element of the cosmos, and that without it there’d simply be no existence.

            The truth is that everything but everything both abstruse and concrete had to have been created by G-d. Each instance of “something” was created anew out of the essential “nothingness” that preceded it. Time, reality, potentiality, cause, and everything else in the here-and-now could have remained un-created and forever subsumed in the vast and terrible never-to-have-been.

⁷                Which starts the statement that “In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

⁸                Because the others begin with a directive that’s immediately followed by a fulfillment, as in “G-d said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light” (1:3), “And G-d said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water’ … and it was so” (1:6-7), etc.

(c) 2019 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.

Da’at Tevunot 3:3 (¶’s 103- 115)

1.

It seems logical, doesn’t it, that goodness would be a product of something that emanates goodness while wrongfulness would be a product of some other thing that emanates wrongfulness ¹? But it’s not that simple, since it’s G-d alone who’s the source of all emanations ², and He never emanates wrongfulness as He’s the consummate source of goodness.

But, where then does wrongfulness come from? Isn’t G-d depicted as “making peace and creating wrong”? (Isaiah 45:7).

2.

For one thing it’s written “creating wrong” rather than “bringing about wrong”; as while G-d certainly brought wrongfulness into existence —  otherwise it would never exist — He nonetheless never actually brings about wrongfulness Himself  ³.

But there are a few other vexing verses that touch on G-d’s interactions with the world, including, “O L-rd, … You hid Your countenance and I became frightened” (Psalms 30:8), “You hide Your countenance and they are frightened” (Psalms 104:29) and, “I will abandon them and hide My countenance from them, and they will be consumed” (Deuteronomy 31:17) ⁴. What those verses allude to is the fact that while G-d brings about goodness through His emanations, to be sure, wrongfulness is a consequence of His withdrawing His emanation to one degree or another –– or even annulling it by hiding His “countenance”  ⁵.

3.

In point of fact, G-d’s emanations are always meant to bring about what’s ultimately best for their intended recipient, though they’re sometimes withheld. If they’re completely withheld from someone, then that individual would experience a complete and utter loss of some sort, whereas if it would only be withheld somewhat from him then he’d suffer a degree of loss, but no more ⁶.

And so, for example, when G-d’s emanation is in full force, its recipient is alive and vibrant, whereas he’d die if it were completely withheld from him, and become sick or made to suffer if it would only be partially withheld.

So there aren’t two separate sources of emanations, one for goodness and the other for wrongfulness. Everything is a product of one degree or another of G-d’s own emanation or His withholding of it.  As such, wrong is simply the lack of some degree or another of goodness.

4,

In fact, were we to somehow observe all of the instances of right and wrong in the world and truly comprehend their circumstances, we’d see for ourselves that all instances of wrongfulness are a consequence of a lack of righteousness ⁷. So there’s simply no logical reason to claim that there are two sources of emanation. Instead, there’s one single ⁸ emanation that either functions fully, partially, or not at all, as we’d said.

Indeed, the world is clearly intricate and complex, and full of instances of right and wrong. And everything that’s right and just is a direct result of G-d’s emanation while everything wrong and unjust is a consequence of His withdrawing of it to one degree or another, given that — even if we don’t perceive it as such — absolutely everything is ultimately from G-d.

5.

Now, you might wonder. though, how anything can come about at all if there’s some sort of a withdrawal of Divine emanation. And you might then assert that G-d must have created wrongfulness in fact, otherwise it simply couldn’t come about.

But it comes to this ⁹: when we refer to G-d’s having created the universe we need to realize that He first created the whole of nature and reality itself in broad strokes, and then their specific elements. And then He decided to create the elements of right and wrong in the mix. He emitted an ¹⁰ emanation to do that which was all good ¹¹. But some of it was withheld, which was an innovation ¹² and a contradiction of G-d’s pristine and all good emanation, and an aberration. And that was all for the allowance of wrongfulness.

Certain consequences just naturally came about once that happened of course, some of which are good and others bad. But even the bad consequences ultimately derived from G-d’s ¹³ emanations, given that absolutely everything does. Thus admixtures of right and wrong came about and continue to exist in the world.

So, the original emanation was never utterly withheld or else the world would cease to exist. It is only true that it was partially withheld.

That also explains why some people become ill rather than die from one thing or another — because they were to have been inflicted by the withholding of G-d’s emanation, but only to a particular degree rather than completely.  Thus diseases and the like are innovations, if you will, on the original fact of whole-hearted emanations.

Thus we see that G-d in fact does nothing wrongful Himself, but He sometimes withholds His emanations which result in wrongfulness ¹⁴. But there’s a lot more to be said about this, as we’ll see.

Footnotes:

¹             This is a continuation of the discussion begun in the previous chapter, 3:2.

²                Ultimately, as there are many intercedents like sephirot, angels, and more.

³                See Ramchal’s discussion of human free will and our own subsequent ability to bring wrongfulness about in 1:11 above.

⁴                See 3:8 below for a discussion of G-d hiding His “countenance”.

⁵                That is, while G-d ordinarily brings about goodness proactively by emanating it full-forcedly, He nevertheless passively allows for wrongfulness by hiding His “countenance” — I.e., His immanent attention — to one degree or another from something or someone.

⁶                The idea of G-d withholding His goodness from someone for his or her own good is complex and often fraught with misunderstanding. In short it comes down to the idea of allowing someone to suffer to a small degree to prevent great suffering later on (much the way surgery, which is inherently dangerous and painful, is often utilized to prevent far greater danger and pain, which is alluded to below).

⁷                This seems to be a broad and unsubstantiated statement, but isn’t it true for example that we suffer harm when others aren’t kind to us? And aren’t crimes and acts of violence rooted in meanness and callousness?

⁸                Essential and primal.

⁹                See Clallim Rishonim 11 for a discussion of what’s to follow.

¹⁰              Single essential and primal.

¹¹              It was all good because that’s the inherent nature of G-d’s pristine emanation.

¹²              That is, this phenomenon was created anew to serve its specific purposes in the created world.

¹³              Still-and-all inherently good.

¹⁴              In the end it comes to this. Acts of true and full goodness, justice, and righteousness are directly and vigorously nourished by G-d’s emanations, to be sure; but when it comes to acts of evil, injustice, and wrongfulness, G-d only enables those sorts of things to come about back-handedly, if you will, reluctantly, by reducing or undoing His emanations to them to one degree or another.

(c) 2019 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.

Da’atTevunot 3:2 (# 98 – 102) 

1.

Ramchal starts to explain the role of wrong and injustice in the world with a proposition derived from Rambam¹. It’s that when G-d creates or sustains something He does so with wafts of life-energy radiating toward it known as Divine “emanations”². And that emanation defines that person, place, or thing’s makeup ³.

An analogous phenomenon in our experience, he offers, is the way the constellations emanate upon ⁴ things in the world, Ramchal offers ⁵. Indeed, they affect and color everything that happens in our world. For as our sages put it, “each and every blade of grass down here has a ‘constellation’ up above that strikes it and says to it, ‘Grow!’”(BreishitRabbah 10:6).

2.

But know that those constellations only bestow upon and control things that they’d been told to by G-d, as G-d alone is the source and impetus behind each and every act of emanation⁶. For as Rambam put it ⁷, it’s G-d alone who is the ultimate source of the existence of everything.

Yet recall that His ways are not our ways⁸. And nothing He does as He interacts with this universe emanates from His own pure Being itself which transcends everything.

Everything that He has occur here ⁹has been bestowed upon according to His will by an agent¹⁰. And everything is to be bestowed upon exactly the way He decreed it should be, and is to fit into the makeup and needs of this world specifically.

3.

It turns out then that both the agents that generate this world that G-d created as well as the persons, places, and things they helped to generate are created phenomena — not just the latter. It’s also true that G-d created different manners and degrees of emanationaccording to the things He wanted to be created.  And each agent of emanationis to affect a specific thing. Isn’t it true, after all, that the emanationof wisdom is one sort, that of strength is another, and that of wealth is yet another, etc.

But why would G-d have done it that way when He could have had everything bestowed upon by a single agent rather than by a number of them?

That’s because what emanationis at bottom is what G-d provides to His created beings so as to accomplish one thing or another. It’s not up to us to consider the makeup of that emanationfrom G-d’s perspective, since we can’t fathom what He Himself does, but rather from our own perspective. So when G-d bestows might, for example, to something or another He does through the agent that bestows might since G-d wanted that thing to be powerful. And when He wants something to experience wisdom He has it bestowed upon by the agent of wisdom, etc. ¹¹.

Let’s consider goodness and wrongfulness¹². How are they bestowed upon?

Footnotes:

¹                While this doesn’t seem to touch on the subject at first blush it will be explained on later.

²             See 1:14 note 7 above for an explanation. Also see Ramchal’s statement below that “what emanation is at bottom is what G-d provides to His created beings so as to accomplish one thing or another”.

The point here is that G-d has to effulgently grant either life itself or the ability to continue to live and exist upon a person, place or thing in order for it to do that.

It’s because of this mechanism in fact that G-d is termed “the fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 17:13) and “the source of life” (Psalms 36:10).

³             That is, the strength, character, and configuration of G-d’s emanation shapes and “colors” the person, place, or thing it’s bestowed upon (much the way the degree and quality of love or the lack of it that a parent bestows upon a child defines and shapes his or her being).

Ramchal cites MorehNevuchim2:10, but see 2:11 there, too, as well as Ramchal’s discussion of much this idea in Derech Hashem 1:5:2.

⁴             Or, control and fuel.

⁵             “Constellations” in this context can also refer to any higher celestial phenomena that have control of lower ones, and so on downward, snf need not refer to the physical constellations we know of (since the Hebrew term is mazal, which has both implications).

⁶             That is, G-d Himself is the source of every emanation, whether it’s His very own or one of His dutiful agents.

⁷             See 2:12 there.

⁸             As we’re told, “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways’, declares the L-rd.” (Isaiah 55:8).

⁹             Both the processes G-d uses to create and maintain things, and the makeup of things themselves.

¹⁰              That is, though G-d indeed fuels the emanations that would be necessary for all the instances of wrong and injustice in the universe, nevertheless that emanation isn’t directly from G-d or a part of His Being — it only serve a specific purpose.

This underscores the point that while G-d certainly allows for wrong and injustice since things only exist and go on with His awareness and approval, still the point is that it’s separate from His essence and only serves a temporary end which will be undone in the end.

¹¹           That is, G-d does indeed emit what we might term a “composite” emanation — one single amorphous extension of His will, but we don’t experience it that way. It’s just that when it touches upon our own situation it takes on as particular hue and tone specific to the task at hand, whether it’s to allow for intelligence, strength or the like.

¹²           In light of all this now, rather than traits as we have been.

(c) 2018 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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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).

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