Category Archives: Ramchal

Da’at Tevunot 3:1 (# 96 – 97)

1.

Probably the most vexing problem of all is why evil, injustice, and wrongdoing exist in a world created by a good and benevolent G-d, who expects and enables us to be good and just! After all, what purpose does wrong and injustice serve? Why did G-d allow for them in the first place and why does He let them go on?

Ramchal set out to explain a lot of this effulgent theme in this chapter which serves as an introduction to Da’at Tevunot’s next principle: reward and punishment and the existence of wrong.

2.

The first point Ramchal makes to settle all of this is that we need to recall that man’s role in this world is to serve G-d by rectifying all wrongdoing in the world ¹. His second point ² is that wrong will be undone in the end ³. Then he gets into some of the details.

As to rectifying all wrong, we’re expected to undo it from within ourselves at first and then from our surroundings ⁴. After all, we’re told that “each person is obliged to say, ‘the world was created for my sake’” (Sanhedrin 37) ⁵. And he cites a parable: Once there was a huge boulder in the middle of a road that was obstructing things. So the king ordered that it be chipped away piece by piece in the meanwhile and that he’d do away with it for good in the end (Yalkut Shimoni, Hoshea 532) ⁶.

Let’s first explore the makeup, limits, and consequences of wrong, the source of its great power, and what will eventually undo it.

3.

The first thing to assert is that wrong was created outright and intentionally from the first by G-d ⁷, and for the express purpose of testing our mettle and providing us with a basis for Divine service ⁸. The second thing is that there wasn’t even a hint or indication of its existence ⁹ or anything like it ¹⁰.

For G-d Himself is utterly good and perfect, and anything that’s good is somehow connected to Him; but wrong is the exact opposite of Him, and it had no connection to Him before it was created ¹¹.

Yet He could still and all create it because He’s utterly omnipotent and could thus even create something as utterly antithetical to His own being as it ¹²!

And He saw to it that wrong would be undone in the end and that it would have the limitations, makeup, and laws He wanted it to have. After all, it was created so that the righteous who would have been successful in conquering it themselves would be rewarded for that ¹³.

Footnotes:

¹                The point of the matter is that wrong thwarts all of that, so why does it exist? This section of Da’at Tevunot delves into all of that and explains just how undoing wrong and injustice enables us to enjoy the profound reward of closeness to G-d. And that reward and its opposite, punishment, are what will be concentrated on here (see Ramchal’s Introduction above).

There’s a shorter discussion of the matter in 1:2, 1:6-10, and 1:14.

²                Which will come up shortly.

³                That alludes to the fact that it will eventually be undone (see 3:6, 11 below and Derech Hashem 3:2:8) whether we have a role in that or not (though there will certainly be a grand and occult reward for those who helped undo it).

⁴                We’re reminded of what R. Yisroel Salanter once said that when he was a young man he wanted to improve the world, but he found that it was too hard to do that so he tried to improve his people. When he found he couldn’t do that he began to focus on his town. When he couldn’t do that he tried to improve his family. Then he finally began to realize that the only thing he could ever improve would be himself, and he perceived the fact that if he had improved himself long ago, that he could have made an impact on his family, they and he could have made an impact on their town, which could have improved his nation, and he could indeed have improved the world.

⁵                That is, everyone is challenged to improve his world.

⁶                Again the point is that we’re to do our part, but that in the end G-d will see that it succeeds.

⁷                Thus its creation wasn’t a mistake, an afterthought, or the creation of any other being.

⁸                That is, if wrong wasn’t there to serve as a nemesis and opponent, what challenges would we meet and how could we ever grow better in the face of it (which is the aim of Divine service after all).

⁹                Before creation.

¹⁰              And yet it was somehow created by G-d, as we’ll now see.

¹¹              That is, wrong is so diametrically opposite to G-d and was such an innovation that (literally) came out of nowhere that its creation is completely inscrutable. Yet we’re assured that G-d created it indeed and with good reason.

¹²              See Adir Bamarom p. 396.

¹³              See Clallim Rishonim 12 for the Kabbalistic bases of this chapter and more, and see 3:3 below for a discussion of how wrong managed to have been created by a benevolent and loving G-d after all.

(c) 2018 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 2:11 (# 88 [cont.])

1.

Whereas the soul will reign supreme in the ultimate epoch, as we saw ¹, it will nonetheless have less and less of a presence the further down along the five epochs of time we go, when the body will have more ².

And so the next epoch downward — the second — is the one in which the body will actually be more manifest, while the soul will be less active and somewhat demeaned then ³.

The body’s situation then would be like that of someone having a vague and general memory of things, like “someone who’d had a lot of troubles” in his life who nevertheless had only a “vague recollection of them” then, and whose mood was somehow “dampened”, as Ramchal himself puts it here in the text. That’s what we’ll experience when the soul won’t reign supreme any longer, and it would experience a sort of “heaviness of heart”, if you will, “without quite knowing why” ⁴.

2.

While the body will manifest itself indeed in the third epoch downward, it will only be able to do so to a degree ⁵.

The body will be manifest in the fourth epoch downward ⁶, but it will be “like the soul is in the world (now) — (which is to say,) a foreigner of sorts”, as Ramchal puts it. That’s to say that the soul will hold sway and the body will have to obey it. But the body would have to follow the “customs of the land” ⁷.

In other words, Ramchal offers, the body’s situation then would be like Moses’ was when he stood atop the actual and physical Mount Sinai yet dwelt in Heaven, if you will, at the same time, when even though he was still very much alive and a physical entity he nonetheless didn’t eat or drink the way one would act in Heaven ⁸.

3.

It’s in the course of the fifth and lowest stage, however ⁹, that the body is in its full flower and is “like the master of the house”, Ramchal says, with all of its faculties intact ¹⁰.

But there are potentially two degrees of that stage. The body could function on an animalistic level ¹¹, or it could function on a holy one with noble and pure intentions ¹² (as would have been the case had Adam and Eve not sinned). After all, we all need to eat and drink and the like, but we could do those things in a holy way ¹³.

Footnotes:

¹                See 2:10 above.

²                It’s clear that a lot is being alluded to in this chapter rather than spelled out. We’ll do our best to provide some of what’s hinted at here.

The first thing is that the ultimate epoch cited above corresponds to the World to Come (see note 1 to 2:10 for the laying out of the chronology here as well the footnotes below). While there will be a body then, it will be a very subtle and hardly-detectable material but non-material and porous sort of body.

Now, given that the “body” under discussion isn’t just the physical self, but the personality, sense-of-self, etc. as we’d been indicating in our notes here all along, it seems reasonable to conjecture that this refers to the idea that while one’s immortal soul will be manifest in the World to Come, one’s sense-of-self, self-consciousness, self-awareness, and personality will only be amorphous at best or perhaps even negligible but present nevertheless.

³                This corresponds to the Day of Judgment.

⁴                That is, the self will be able to recall its life and its sins and their consequent sorrows then, but at a certain remove. And it would consequently be able to assess those sins and itself more objectively, in keeping with the spirit of the Day of Judgment.

⁵                This corresponds to the time of the resurrection of the dead, when the sense-of-self will be stronger, but it will be secondary to the sense of soul.

⁶                This corresponds to the messianic era.

⁷                Ramchal cites Breishit Rabbah 47:5 which says, for all intents and purposes, “When in Rome, (the body would have to) do as the Romans (i.e., souls) do” (see Baba Metziah 86a as well).

⁸                That is, the self will be so stunned by its radical change of circumstance in the messianic era that it could do nothing other than to acquiesce to its reality.

⁹                This corresponds to the world as we know it now.

¹⁰              As now, when we’re sure that we’re in charge of our circumstances and we believe that we needn’t acquiesce to our soul’s needs.

¹¹              Giving in to the body’s needs alone and the ego’s satisfactions.

¹²              Acknowledging the ego and body’s needs, but dedicating them to Heaven, the way we’re expected to act on Shabbos, when we eat well while nonetheless sanctifying the meals through Kiddush and with the sense of the holiness of the day in mind all of the time (see Ch. 26 of Messilat Yesharim).

¹³           Ramchal has presented things from the highest level downward which makes it more difficult to grasp his points, so we’ll now present them from the lowest level upward.

The lowest level would be our current experience, where the body, as well as our sense-of-self or ego, hold sway and the soul is in check. His final point is that we can draw upon the soul even in this lowest of circumstances by living a physical life that’s still and all rooted in spiritual goals, otherwise we’d be nothing better than animals.

Things will then begin to change in the next, messianic era in that the soul will be more prominent while the sense-of-self and ego will begin to be less important in our minds and in reality. That will be all the more so true with the approach of the day of judgment then the resurrection of the dead, when the sense-of-self will grow more and more negligible, and the soul will shine more brightly and assertively. And the ultimate experience will be in the course of the World to Come, when we will experience just the barest, slimmest sense-of-self in the face of the fullest most robust reality of the soul — and the presence of G-d — possible.

(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.

Da’at Tevunot 2:10 (# 87 – 88 [beg.])

1.

We’d need to retrace our steps up to now in this second section of Da’at Tevunot to understand where we’re heading here.

Ramchal set out to discuss the fact that we’re comprised of two utterly antithetical elements: physicality and spirituality, and to explore how they nonetheless collaborate. He then investigated the relationship between G-d’s hiddeness and His revelation and our body and soul (then he side-tracked to discuss the realm in which body and soul interact, the complexion). And he then offered that there’ll be various epochs of time which the body and soul will experience together that will go on to explain things about G-d’s hiddenness or manifest presence. We’ll be delving into that last point here.

The first thing to know is that we’ll be concentrating on great stretches of time — ten millennia and more — and upon great and mysterious, mystical machinations involving our bodies and souls, G-d’s ever more manifest presence, and the makeup of the universe at large 1.

There’ll prove to be five such epochs of time, and Ramchal will depict the ultimate one first 2.

2.

This final epoch will be the one in which the aimed-for human perfection will have been achieved. And we’ll start with it, rather than with the first epoch, because it’s the one that was actually formed first but then held in abeyance until it could be achieved by our own efforts which was the plan from the first 3.

The soul will utterly reign at this juncture and the body will have no say whatsoever, and will not even seem to be there for all intents and purposes, given that it will be totally subservient to the soul. In fact, the body couldn’t even be said to be a “body” there and then as we know it: it will simply exist somehow but serve no practical function 4.

It makes sense that the body would be so nearly null and void then, given that it’s so material, dense and dark, and rooted in the holding back of light. If it actually functioned there, that would somehow smother and diminish the light of the soul. So the soul is allowed to be in full bloom there and then, and enabled to achieve full perfection, while the body is powerless.

Again, though, that’s not to say that the body won’t exist there and then — didn’t we point out that both body and soul are to be rewarded 5 which would dictate that the body would need to exist? It’s just to say that the body won’t function then and it will be totally subsumed to the soul to which it will be attached and with which it will be in synch. In fact, the two wouldn’t be able to be differentiated from each other for the body would be “swallowed up” by the soul’s pure being 6.

Footnotes:

1 We’re taught that reality as we know it will only last for six millennia, after which all will be undone then redone by G-d in the course of the seventh millennium (Sanhedrin 97b). But Ramchal draws here upon the concept of ten millennia that was introduced in the 14th century Kabbalistic work Sefer Brit Menucha, by Rabbi Avraham ben Yitzchak of Granada.

Understand of course that the term “millennium” here isn’t to be taken literally, as time will no longer factor in once the world approaches the tenth “millennium” and beyond.

In short the chronology will be as follows: the seventh millennium will encompass the Messianic Era; the eighth and ninth millennia, which would best be termed the post Messianic era, will include the resurrection of the dead, the Day of Judgment; and the tenth millennium will comprise the World to Come.

2 This will prove to be the World to Come.

3 That’s to say that the World to Come — the epoch of perfection — was there from the first and will be there in the end.

This is a very esoteric theme that Ramchal often returned to again and again. See his Ma’amar Sod HaYichud and elsewhere.

4 See Klallim Rishonim 9.

5 See 2:1:2 above.

6 That’s to say that while the body will certainly be there in the mix, it will “be almost non-existent, and will be utterly and wholly subservient to the soul” then, as Ramchal words it. In fact, Ramchal states that “it couldn’t even be referred to by a name” since it would have so faint a presence, and it could “only be said to exist” but to “have no (other) effect” than that.

It’s simply that the body will no longer have consequence, no effect, will exercise no push and pull, and it will enjoy no significance; instead, it will be utterly deferential to the soul to which it will cling for dear life and purpose, and to which it will be wholly subsumed

As we indicated in note 5 to 2:2 above, the “body” in this context includes one’s mind, personality, memories, and the like. The implication then is that there’ll come a time when one’s whole sense of self -will be in a state of semi-sleep and near extinction, for all intents and purposes. There’d likely be a sense of self-consciousness then but that it would seemingly be so still and passive as to hardly matter.

Perhaps — and this is all conjecture — it would be analogous to the feeling one has when reacting rapturously to music or lofty thought — when the sounds or ideas overtake one’s being and sense of self, and when the body certainly goes on its physiological way, the senses still work, and the brain still accepts signals, but the person wouldn’t respond if his or her name was being called, and would only return to normal consciousness after some prodding. The point to remember, though, is that the immortal soul, which far transcends all this, will go on as always, and will be unaffected by any of it.

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.

Da’at Tevunot 2:9 (# 85 – 86)

1.

The idea that G-d’s manifest presence is epitomized by our souls while His hiddeness is epitomized by our bodies is clear enough. And the one that G-d’s interactions with the world are epitomized by the fact that body and soul are interlinked is clear enough, too. But where can we actually catch sight of the body and soul’s interactions, as we were told we’d need to concentrate on as well?

2.

Ramchal’s point is that there’s actually a plane upon which our body and soul manifestly function together, and that’s our facial complexion 1.

After all, aren’t the dead and the living differentiated by their complexions 2? Can’t we tell when a person is ill or not by his complexion? And don’t our feelings and deepest thoughts manifest themselves on our complexions — as when we smile, frown, seem pleasant, etc.?

In point of fact, the complexion is the property of neither our body nor soul alone. For the body couldn’t manifest a complexion without a soul nor can the soul manifest one without a body. Hence, our complexion is truly a product of the union of the two 3.

And we dare not belittle the complexion, as it touches upon a very important phenomenon 4.

3.

When they envisioned things, the prophets drew an analogy between what they “saw” and He who fashioned it, as when they saw images of G-d’s presence (or absence) playing themselves out in various ways: as when G-d exhibited Himself as a warrior, for example, as a merciful elder and the like, as our sages explained (Chagigah 14a).

For the prophet would envision something and then ruminate upon it so as to try to understand what that vision said about G-d’s hiddenness or revelation, or the combination of the two.

So for example a prophet might envision “the appearance of a man up above” (Ezekiel 1:26) with a body and a soul, and a complexion expressing the combination of the two that perhaps expresses cordiality, gladness, anger, or the like. The prophet would then use that “information” to figure out what G-d was about to do in the world, whether He was about to exhibit His benevolence or judgment, His closeness or distance 5.

So, just as a sensitive individual can catch sight of another’s soul by the effect it has on that person’s face, a prophet could likewise “catch sight” of G-d’s intentions and feelings by the effect it has on His “face” in a vision 6.

Footnotes:

1 Ramchal refers to the “face’s radiance” in the text, which is an odd turn of phrase. But as we indicate, the phenomenon he’s depicting is what we term our “complexion” or “skin tone” which is the surface upon which our emotions, etc. appear (as when we blush, glow with pride, and the like).
2 I.e., Aren’t the living full of coloration and the dead pale and waxy looking?
3 The ancient mystical study of the human face and its tell-tale signs termed “physiognomy” (which is not actually the subject under discussion) is discussed at length in that section of the Zohar known as Raza d’Razin at 2:70a–75a, as well as in Zohar Chadash 56c–60a. The Ari was especially able to read souls through marks on a person’s forehead.
4 Ramchal is referring to the point he’ll be making below about prophets and their visions, but he’s also alluding to a number of Kabbalistic concepts.

At bottom, it has to do with the phenomena we cited in note 1 to 1:15 and at the end of note 6 to 2:1. And it refers to the fact that the mere “Trace” of G-dliness left behind after the Tzimtzum, which represents the body and G-d’s hiddenness, then interacts with the “Line” introduced afterwards, which represents the soul and G-d’s manifest presence, upon the “Face” and “complexion” of Adam Kadmon, which then expresses things about G-d’s “feelings” and will.

The underlying point is that what happens here, in our realm, happens upon the uppermost realms, too, albeit on a whole other order of circumstance. For Man is said to be an olam katan, a miniature version — a microcosm — of the entire universe. Each element of the universe is said to correspond to an element of man and vice versa. See Avot d’Rebbi Natan (31, 92), Chovot Halevovot (2:4) and elsewhere for illustrations.

So by reflecting deeply and sensitively on the structure and makeup of humankind we can come to understand something about the interplay of body and soul, and we’ll also come to catch sight of some of the interactions between G-d and the world.

5 In other words, if a prophet envisioned G-d’s “face” as bright and shiny he’d understand that G-d was pleased with His people and was openly drawing closer to them; whereas if he envisioned G-d’s “face” as dark and murky the prophet would then understand that G-d was unhappy with His people and was hiding from them.
6 See Klach Pitchei Chochma 31, as well as Ramchal’s Biurim L’Sefer Otzrot Chaim.
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.

Da’at Tevunot 2:8 (# 82 – 84)

1.

We’ll soon touch on the epochs of time that the body and soul will experience together that we’d just alluded to ¹. But we’d have to focus on something else beforehand.

Ramchal makes the point that the world is so stunningly awash in systems and processes that it’s hard for us mortal souls to capture it all. Didn’t the psalmist say, “You have done great things — You, O L-rd my G-d! Your wonders and Your thoughts are … too numerous to tell of” (Psalms 40:6); “How great are Your works, O L-rd! Your thoughts (alone) are very deep” (Ibid. 92:6), and, “How great are Your works, O L-rd! You have fashioned them all with wisdom; the (whole) world is full of Your possessions!” (Ibid. 104:24).

So he says that it would be best for us to speak of things in broad rather than in narrow and specific terms in order to be able to grasp this topic — or just about anything. After all, there are only so many broad categories, and while we can’t contend with a lot of specifics we can easily grasp the broad generalizations they fall under.

Indeed, our sages said that we’re to “always lay Torah concepts out in broad terms rather than in specific ones” (Sifrei, Ha’azinu 32:2) ².

2.

In any event, let’s recall that G-d’s hiding or revealing His presence are the very root causes of the body and soul respectively. So we’d need to dwell upon those two phenomena if we’re ever going to truly understand the makeup of the body and soul.

For in fact these two phenomena play themselves out everywhere, with G-d’s presence being alternatively hidden and manifest, manifest and hidden, at one at the same time, as we’d already indicated ³. We’d also need to discuss the consequences of the combination of the two, and the predominance of one over the other.

We’d thus need to concentrate on three ultimate realities and events: G-d’s hiddeness versus His revelation of Himself, the reality of their functioning simultaneously, and the consequences of that combination as well as of the predominance of one over the other.

Footnotes:

¹                As we’ll see, they include the sixth millennium (which we’re in the course of now, and only 200 some odd years away from completing at this point) and the more esoteric seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth millennia to come. The body and soul will interact in different ways in the course of each.

²                Ramchal always favored short, over-arching statements to close depictions of details. See his introduction to Derech Hashem and his letter 39 in the Yarim Moshe edition.

³                See 1:17 above

(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.

Da’at Tevunot 2:7 (# 80 [middle) – 81)

1.

The idea just discussed that the body models one thing about G-d while the soul models another was best explained by a quote from the Zohar (3:257b) ¹. The Zohar there also addresses the point we’d made early on that while we attribute many traits to G-d, those traits don’t depict G-d Himself but rather what He does when He interacts with us ².

So it would do us well to address both of these things, then go on to relate them to the body and soul. The Zohar there also underscores the fact that the soul’s perfection alludes to G-d’s own perfection just as its unknowable nature alludes to G-d’s own unknowable nature.  So, we’ll touch upon that, too.

2.

Let it first be said that the traits that G-d exhibits here weren’t formed ad hoc when the world was created. For nothing about G-d ever suddenly appears out of the blue. G-d in fact always had the ability to manifest those traits within His being ³. It’s just that there came to be a point when one trait or another was appropriate to what was happening in the world and needed to be “called upon” just then, if you will.

3.

Now, the truth be known, we can’t even refer to G-d by a name, let alone depict Him ⁴. We call Him “G-d” in order to refer to Him, to be sure, but that’s not His actual name since we can only apply a name to something or someone that we can grasp, and we simply can’t grasp G-d. Also because a name defines whomever or whatever it refers to, and G-d Himself can’t be defined ⁵.

We likewise can’t attribute traits to something we can’t define or comprehend. And yet we seem to comprehend certain things about G-d, don’t we?

The point of the matter is that we comprehend what He does when He interacts with us, as when He seemingly exhibits compassion, governance, and the like. So we use those terms to depict Him even though those depictions don’t befit G-d Himself. But we only do that because He allowed us to.

We can now better understand something of the makeup of the body and soul, given all of this.

4.

As we know, the body is comprised of various component parts with distinctive functions ⁶ while the soul is a single, indivisible entity that’s utterly unlike the body ⁷.

And yet the soul lies behind the body’s functions. It’s what hears with the body’s ears, sees with the body’s eyes, and the like, even though the soul itself is beyond such things ⁸.  As such, the soul functions within the body’s components ⁹ and since the soul uses these component parts to do what it does, it’s somehow associated with those functions.

This contrast between the soul’s actual makeup and its functions in the body, then, is analogous to G-d’s makeup and His use of the traits attributed to Him when He interacts with the world.

For, even though He Himself is utterly removed from such traits, He nonetheless wants them to be attributed to Him. And so by virtue of the fact that He uses those traits to function in this world, He’s said to have those traits when He really doesn’t and He hasn’t any inherent connection to them ¹⁰.

We’ll soon see how this discrepancy between G-d’s being and His functions in the world also helps us to understand the relationship between the body and the soul, which itself will explain the human situation at all junctures ¹¹.

Footnotes:

¹                This theme will prove to be the thrust of this chapter, but that won’t become clear until the end since a number of other points will need to be made. That makes the chapter difficult, but keeping this idea in mind will help us to understand it. See footnote 10 below.

Ramchal explained this citation from the Zohar in a number of his works including Haga’aot Otzrot Chaim 9, Klach Pitchei Chochma 27, 29, and Iggerot Pitchei Chochma V’Da’at. Also see Eitz Chaim 1:1.

²                See 1:12 above where many of the very same points made here are first offered. The difference will lie in the fact that this idea is tied in here with the relationship between the soul and G-d’s interactions with the world.

³                So they could be said to lie latent somewhere deep in the Upper Reaches somehow, but not manifest.

⁴                The English term “G-d” itself, incidentally, is said to be derived from the Proto-Indo-European term for “that which is invoked” or prayed to, which thus refers to what G-d does rather than what He is.

⁵                This is a stunning statement, since we attribute many names to G-d and call out to Him by those names in our prayers to Him and the like. But the truth of the matter is that the four-letter name of Y-H-V-H referred to in the Torah which is said to be His “definitive name” (as opposed to E-L-O-H-I-M and the like which refer to His traits) only serves to depict His immortality (i.e., it contains the Hebrew words for “was”, “is”, and “will be”).     And, as the Kabbalists explain, the four letters of that name themselves actually stand for certain phenomena that function in creation and afterwards and the like, and have nothing directly to say about G-d Himself. But all of this is beyond the subject at hand.

⁶                And those various functions are analogous to the different depictions of G-d, as we’ll see.

⁷                The soul’s oneness is analogous to G-d’s own oneness which is utterly unfathomable.

⁸                Just like G-d’s own being is behind every trait that He exhibits in the world even though He’s beyond it.

⁹                Just as G-d, who is unlike anything in this world, functions within it by means of various traits.

¹⁰              This is the gist of what Ramchal is saying here. We already know that the body models one thing about G-d while the soul models another, as we indicated in footnote 1 above. He’s saying here that that theme also plays itself out in the difference between G-d’s essence and His role in the world and the soul’s.

For, just as the soul is unknowable, singular and beyond the doings of the world, G-d is likewise unknowable, singular and beyond the doings of the world. Yet both G-d and the soul interact with the world. The point is that just as the soul only “uses” the body’s many and variable parts to interact with the world even though it’s removed from those body parts by nature, G-d likewise “uses” or exhibits many and variable traits to interact with the world even though in His essence He’s removed from the world. So we see that the body models G-d’s ways when He interacts with the world while the soul models His ways when He doesn’t interact with the world.

¹¹              This alludes to the five junctures of time to be discussed in 2:10 below.

(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.

Da’at Tevunot 2:6 (# 80 [beg. – middle])

1.

Ramchal reveals an important insight here — that this principle of G-d’s alternately concealing or revealing His presence explains many things about our body and soul. And conversely that our body and soul explain many things about G-d’s hiddenness or revelation, too, since they’re all interrelated ¹.

As such we’re told that not only is the body a product of G-d’s hiddenness, it also serves as a model of it, just as the soul serves as a model of G-d’s presence. And G-d’s concealing or revealing His presence also explains many things about ourselves, given that we were all created in G-d’s “image and likeness” (Genesis 1:26) ² and we reflect all of His ways in our makeup.

So, let’s see how this works.

2.

As we’ve explained before, the body is rooted in darkness ³. In fact, even if you’d purify your body as much as you possibly could it would never be a soul, since the soul is a lofty and illuminated product of G-d’s presence while the body is simply not ⁴. The body is rooted in G-d’s hiddenness. Indeed, the body could only be purified to the point where body and soul nearly touch, but no further ⁵. For, your soul will always be a soul and a perfect entity, while your body will always be imperfect, no matter how much you purify it ⁶.

It’s also obviously true that your body is comprised of a large number of parts with specific functions: with eyes to see with, for example, ears to hear with, etc. But that’s not true of your soul. All of your soul’s “parts” ⁷ are merged together rather than separate. And that’s connected to the body’s being a product of G-d’s hiddenness and the soul being a product of G-d’s presence ⁸.

Now, this is all rooted in a well-known principle that perfection ⁹ is rooted in oneness ¹⁰ and can’t be disproportionate ¹¹. But there are times — when G-d’s presence is hidden — that He doesn’t want perfection to be in place, as when He allows for reward or punishment ¹² for example. And when He sees to it that there are instances of multiplicity and disproportion ¹³ in the world ¹⁴.

3.

This paradigm also manifests itself in our having been created in G-d’s image, as cited above. Let’s see how.

Our body-parts correspond to the traits that G-d uses to interact with the world. And so our eyes correspond to the “eyes” that G-d observes and judges us with, our ears correspond to the “ears” that He listens to our prayers with, and our mouths correspond to the “mouth” that G-d uses to converse with, etc., as all of our body-parts correspond on some level to G-d’s traits in this world.

The fact that we’re comprised of a left and right side for our eyes, ears, hands, feet, etc. corresponds to G-d’s ways of interacting with us with either His “right”, loving side or His “left”, critical side ¹⁵, which He displays when His presence isn’t manifest ¹⁶.

It’s also true that just as our body-parts are differentiated by function, our experiences in this world are likewise all different from each other, as a consequence of G-d’s hiddenness. Whereas perfection, which is rooted in oneness as we said and in G-d’s presence, would undo all shortcomings, it wouldn’t be comprised of various parts, and it would see to it that everything achieves perfection ¹⁷.

4.

In any event, know that at bottom, the point is to have the soul take command of the body and purify it so that G-d might manifest His perfection here on earth and to rectify all of the world’s imperfections.

The body would then suffer judgment for having taken command of our souls, for having contributed to G-d’s hiddenness and for leaving humankind and the world to suffer all of the vicissitudes and upheavals that define the human situation.

So the body is equipped with all the parts it needs to contend with such vagaries and for the environment in which perfection is hidden away, and also to help bring perfection about. While the soul on the other hand has what it needs for perfection and in order to rectify each imperfection, so that it might be encouraged to do all of that – if only we’d improve our ways and allow the soul to reign ¹⁸.

Footnotes:

¹                See Clallim Rishonim 23, “V’ha’pen hasheini hu”; and Klach Pitchei Chochma 4, end of perush, “shehanivraim atzmam”; and 9, perush, “ach yesh metziut achas”.

²                This will be reiterated below. But refer to the following works on this vital concept: Kuzari 4:3; Moreh Nevuchim 1:1; Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah 4:8, Hilchot Teshuva 10:6; Siach Yitzchak, Likkutim, p. 286; Nephesh Hachaim 1:3; Michtav M’Eliyahu 1, p. 32; Derech Hachaim 3:14; Zohar Chadash 1:28b, etc.

³                 I.e., in the fact that G-d’s shining countenance is hidden from it. See 2:5:2 above.

⁴                Even though we said above in footnote 6 to 2:1 that body and soul actually derive from the same root, it’s still and all true that that reality changes once the two are manifested in the world.

⁵                According to R’ Yoseph Spinner, some older manuscripts eliminate what’s said from this point in our text all the way to the beginning of section 4 below. That of course disallows for much of this chapter’s insights, but it also does away with a lot of its obscurity and wordiness, which makes it so difficult to understand. (It’s unclear, though, whether Ramchal edited out the extra text or added it in later.)

Moving the text in question to these notes and explaining it with bracketed comments would have helped clarify things and made the text itself easier to read, but we decided against that simply because all of the existing versions of Da’at Tevunot include the text in question.

⁶                     This is an instance of our body and soul modeling G-d’s hiddenness or presence.

⁷                     I.e., all of its inchoate elements, functions, and gradations of holiness.

⁸                     This is another instance of our body and soul model G-d’s hiddenness or presence.

⁹                     … which is also a product of G-d’s presence just as the soul is…

¹⁰                  I.e., in a single, sheer cohesive entity without differentiations.

¹¹                See Clallim Rishonim 6.

Interestingly, Ramchal is thus defining “perfection” here as an instance of amalgamation and of flawless proportion. A “perfect person” would thus be someone who’s consistent in his or her righteousness and would be an example of Rambam’s temperate, righteous personality (see Ch. 4 of Sh’mone Perakim).

¹²               For the sake of free choice in an imperfect world.

The other point is that since there’d only be goodness and reward if G-d’s presence were to be manifest; instances of reward or punishment thus only come about when His presence is hidden.

¹³              … which are instances of plurality and imperfection …

¹⁴                This is an instance of G-d’s hiddenness or presence manifesting itself in the world.

¹⁵                                See the second introduction to Tikkunei Zohar, Zohar 1:109b.

¹⁶                Thus is an instance of our body being a model of G-d’s hiddenness or presence.

¹⁷                  This is another instance of G-d’s hiddenness or presence manifesting itself in our body and souls.

¹⁸                  And this all is a vision of our overcoming G-d’s hiddenness and having Him

manifest His presence in the world, which is our life’s purpose.

(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.

Da’at Tevunot 2:5 (# 76 – 79)

1.

Having spoken about the interplay of body and soul in various realms ¹ we’ll now concentrate on them in conjunction with G-d’s ways in the world.

Now, all-in-all, there are physical phenomena and spiritual ones, Ramchal reminds us. The spiritual ones are far superior to the physical, in that while the physical subsist on a minimum amount of Divine illumination and in over-all scarcity, the spiritual are showered in a great deal of Divine illumination and in abundance ². Also, whereas the spiritual with all of their Divine illumination and abundance are rooted in G-d’s manifest benevolence, the physical with their minimum amount of Divine illumination and their scarcity are rooted in G-d’s more covert benevolence ³. And while spiritual phenomena are rooted in holiness, physical ones are rooted in the mundane and in crassness ⁴. That explains why, given that we’re physical beings, most of our concerns are enmeshed in the physical and are frankly nonsensical and beneath us.

The reality behind this lies in the fact that hazy, dark physicality is a consequence of G-d hiding His countenance rather than manifesting it outright, while spirituality is a consequence of G-d shining His countenance, luminance, and holiness. For, at bottom G-d interacts with us by either concealing or manifesting His countenance ⁵.

But that pattern isn’t only true of how G-d interacts with the body and soul; it also serves as the model for the way material, body-related phenomena and spiritual, soul-related ones came about. For the crasser, turbid physical phenomena came about as a result of G-d having hidden His countenance from the first, while the more laudable spiritual ones came about in the light of His countenance ⁶.

2.

Now, we can either rectify the world or can ourselves be rectified within it through our Divine service ⁷. But the truth is that we can either have our physicality and its consequences hold sway over us, or allow our spirituality and its consequences to. If we follow our bodily inclinations rather than the dictates of the soul we’ll suffer all sorts of harm, whereas if we overcome our physical inclinations and rise above all of its nonsense by following the ways of the Torah instead, then the soul will indeed rule over and purify the body. And we will have rectified the world and ourselves ⁸.

We’ve all, in fact, seen how things are in this world, and we know only too well how quickly things come and go, and how preoccupied we all are with this and that. What’s apparently driving so much of what we do? Things like the desire to eat and drink, and all sorts of ephemera, at bottom. Can it be that we were created for that alone? No indeed: we were created to grasp G-d’s being ⁹, and to attain knowledge and wisdom rather than to be preoccupied with more and more material and baseless things.

Humanity has indeed debased itself and brought a lot of its own harm upon itself, and it has become more and more sullied through the ages. For while our ancestors were far wiser than we and more sharp witted, we’ve become fixated on physicality and materiality. How tragic is that, given that G-d has only created such things by turning His countenance away from them, as we’d said.

Is it surprising, then, how so roiled in darkness physical things are as opposed to things related to the soul, which derive their being from G-d’s full countenance and abundance? Indeed, if one allows his body to reign, G-d will correspondingly hide His countenance from him, and that person will be very far from G-d Himself, from wisdom and knowledge, and he’ll find himself engulfed in sheer physicality and the ephemeral ¹⁰.

3.

None of this is new, to say the least: Adam and Eve experienced a degree of this struggle themselves. As soon as they allowed their eyes and its blandishments to rule over them they experienced G-d’s hiddenness and were forced to depend on their own devices. As it’s written, “You’ll eat bread by the sweat of your brow” (Genesis 3:9) ¹¹, and it’s said of us, “All of a person’s toil is for his mouth, and yet his soul is not satisfied” (Ecclesiastes 6:7) ¹². Indeed, we grow more and more foolish as time passes.

There’s a rule of thumb that touches upon this that would serve us well to know. It’s that the narrower your purview is, the crasser are your thoughts and desires. After all, isn’t it true that children ¹³ have no concern or longing for the pursuit of wisdom. Indeed, they fly out of school as soon as the day’s over without giving a thought to important things. But it’s also true that as a person’s mind grows and his purview expands he longs for finer and more spiritual things. And that goes far to explain our circumstances.

Indeed, this truism is rooted in Adam and Eve’s sin, as a consequence of which we’ve all become preoccupied with nonsense. That was rectified for a while when we received the Torah ¹⁴, but humanity’s low status was reinstated when our people worshipped the Golden Calf and committed other sins. As a consequence, the world has been thrust into darkness.

Things would be otherwise if we’d only allow our souls to rule over our bodies. G-d would shine His countenance upon us then and we could reach the heights that the Holy Seraphim angels are on, as we’ll come to when G-d will pour His “spirit upon all flesh” (Joel 3:1).

All that has varied in the course of history, of course, with people being on a higher or lower levels than others and vice versa. But at bottom the point is that when there were people of higher caliber G-d’s countenance shone upon them and the world itself.

In any event, once we understand the makeup of the body and the soul and their roots in G-d’s either manifesting His countenance or hiding it which affects all of this, we’ll come to recognize how G-d interacts with the world both benevolently and otherwise. We’ll acknowledge the great wisdom involved in this, and come to understand how fundamental this is both to the human condition and to the functioning of the universe.

Footnotes:

¹                See 2:1-4 in connection with this world, the afterlife, the resurrection of the dead, and the world to come.

²                See note 7 to 1:14 above about the mechanism behind G-d’s emanation of light.

³                I.e., in His hiding His countenance, as we’ll see below.

One thing to be derived from this, though, is that while there’s little Divine illumination and scarce signs of Divine benevolence in physicality, there’s some and sometimes even more than just some, otherwise it couldn’t exist because G-d wouldn’t want it to.

⁴                See Derech Hashem 1:3:2 about the contrasts between body and soul.

⁵                G-d actually interacts with us by both concealing and revealing His countenance by degrees, instant by instant.

See 1:8:2 above as well as note 3 there, and 1:14:3 for reference to G-d’s hiding and revealing His countenance. Also see Clallim Rishonim 16.

⁶                That’s to say that G-d created the spiritual realm full-facedly and lovingly while He allowed the physical to exist, to be sure, but “back-handedly”, if you will. For, while physicality certainly serves His purposes it also seems to countervail them.

⁷                Or neither may come about, as we’ll soon see. Ramchal’s point is that we’re both major actors in the course of G-d’s plans as well as beneficiaries of it, or neither, depending on our moral decisions and actions.

⁸                Much of what’s said above about the relative worth of body and soul, human and universal rectification, and the affects our actions have upon the world is reiterated elegantly in the first chapter of Messilat Yesharim.

⁹                So little is said about this point that this stark citation of it is stunning and memorable.

¹⁰              We made the point in note 7 to 2:4 that a lot wasn’t being said there about the subject at hand, and that’s also very true here. For, as it’s indicated in 1:15, 17, G-d will ultimately reveal His countenance to all and forever. Ramchal’s whole aim here, then, is to move us to goodness and teshuva rather than offer an opposing metaphysical viewpoint.

¹¹              That is, you’ll have to work for your food because G-d will leave you to fend for yourselves by turning His countenance from you because you sinned against Him.

¹²              That is, we all work hard for our food and are dissatisfied because we’ve separated ourselves from G-d in the process.

¹³              … whose purviews are narrow …

¹⁴              When we were temporarily placed once again on the high pedestal that Adam and Eve had been on before their sin.

Preview of Da’at Tevunot 2:5 (# 76 – 79)

(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.

Da’at Tevunot 2:4 (# 72 [cont.] – 75)

What enable the soul to purify the body are the soul’s native power, inner incandescence, and the loftiness of its source ¹. So great is all that, in fact, that the soul could actually instantaneously elevate and perfect the body when we’re born. But we’d lose our yetzer hara and free will accordingly, and be angelic and full of light and the knowledge of G-d from the first, which are not G-d’s intentions.

Indeed there’ll come a time when “the land will be as full of the knowledge of G-d as water covers the sea-bed” (Isaiah 11:9), when “I will take away (your) heart of stone … and give you a heart of flesh (instead)” ² (Ezekiel 36:26), and when the soul will become even more exalted than the angels. But that’s not to happen yet. The soul is thus like the moon whose light was initially diminished ³ but will be restored in the future ⁴.

The soul is thus “dimmed” now, if you will; muted and diminished. Yet it also can’t be too diminished or it wouldn’t be able to do what it must do in the meanwhile, to say nothing of what it must do in the future. But that’s another matter ⁵.

2.

So, while the soul is naturally able to grow more and more splendorous with each mitzvah we do here, it’s still and all held captive while in the body and forced to face the challenges of the yetzer hara. But it will reach something of its potential in the Afterlife, thanks to those mitzvahs, which will then enable it to purify the body further in the course of the resurrection of the dead ⁶, after which the two will experience the world to come ⁷.

The soul does enjoy an elevation in our lifetime with each good thing we do but that elevation is largely imperceptible ⁸ even though it manifests itself in certain exalted individuals ⁹.

Footnotes:

¹                This chapter is surprisingly redundant in the original. R’ Yoseph Spinner attributes that to a number of (superfluous) additions which were made after the first edition; and we’d offer that some of the redundancy is due to the fact that Ramchal purposefully set out to encapsulate his points at the end. So we’ve shortened and reordered it to make for easier reading.

²                I.e., a new inclination toward goodness rather than a yetzer hara, according to Rashi there.

³                See Chullin 60b.

⁴                See Isaiah 30:26.

⁵                See 1:2:3 above about G-d muting His own abilities, if you will, for our sake; also see 1:14:3, 1:15:3. The point is that the soul must be set just-so, so as not to overwhelm or “underwhelm”.

⁶                See Derech Hashem 1:3:12.

See Clallim Rishonim 6* for discussions of the Kabbalistic implications of this chapter which touch upon G-d allowing a bit of His being (known as the Kav) to return to the cosmos after having “removed” Himself from it (i.e., after the Tzimtzum) much the way the soul is restored to its luster in the course of the resurrection of the dead after having been dimmed.

⁷             A lot isn’t being said here. For just as the “body” being spoken of here isn’t the body alone, as we’d indicated above, the “soul” depicted here is also a multi-faceted entity. See Ramchal’s discussion of the various aspects of the soul in Derech Hashem 1:3:4, and see Nephesh Hachaim 1:15 about the complex interactions of the various aspects of the soul. Also see Eitz Chaim, Sha’ar Ha’akudim Ch. 5 for a discussion of the fact that what happens on one level happens on all of them. All of this underscores the complexity and fluidity of the “soul” and the “body”, and their interactions. The point of the matter is that the combination of the two is entirely too complex for a simple understanding,

⁸                This is a subtle lead-in to the discussion of G-d’s hiddeness to follow.

⁹                See 2:2:2 above.

(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.