{"id":123,"date":"2016-11-13T00:46:10","date_gmt":"2016-11-13T00:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/?p=123"},"modified":"2016-11-13T00:46:10","modified_gmt":"2016-11-13T00:46:10","slug":"daat-tevunot-113-46-47","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/2016\/11\/13\/daat-tevunot-113-46-47\/","title":{"rendered":"Da\u2019at Tevunot 1:13 (# 46 – 47)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Da\u2019at<\/em> Tevunot<\/em> 1:13 (# 46 – 47)<\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

There’s another thing about G-d’s interactions with us we’d do well to explain now 1<\/sup>. It’s that we’re only able to grasp the effects<\/em> of G-d’s actions — not the means and processes He uses to bring them about, because they touch upon things about Him that we can’t fathom 2<\/sup>, given that we can only comprehend things that touch upon us 3<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

And so while G-d is said to “know”, “remember”, “reflect upon”, “sympathize with”, “anger”, or to “want” one thing or another 4<\/sup>, in truth He doesn’t at all experience those the way we do. All we can say is that He experiences certain ineffable thought processes that are somehow and mysteriously analogous to what we’d experience in certain circumstances, but that they’re nevertheless utterly removed from ours.<\/p>\n

The point of the matter, in any event, is that we experience the kinds of interactions and effects He’d want us to 5<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

It’s also true that what He’s said to refrain<\/em> from doing 6<\/sup> is beyond our ken. For, He just has to “say” something for it to come about — albeit in ineffable ways — in our realm to the extent He’d wants it to 7<\/sup>. A classical example of this ineffable ability was the time He was able to say something and have it heard by Moses and concurrently not<\/em> be heard by the Jewish Nation right beside him 8<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

The fact of the matter is that G-d is omnipotent 9<\/sup> and no “rule” 10<\/sup> or “limitation” 11<\/sup> could ever thwart Him, for while our actions are finite and have their limitations, His are infinite and boundless.<\/p>\n

And now that we understand just how perfect, exalted, omnipotent, and unimpeded G-d actually is we can begin to comprehend some of the otherwise unfathomable and bewildering aspects about life, history and the course of things we’re often thrown by 12<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/p>\n

1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>See Clallim<\/em> Rishonim<\/em> 6 “V’Kav<\/em>” for a discussion of this.<\/p>\n

There’s some seeming redundancy here and 1:12 since both discuss G-d’s interactions with us. Nevertheless while Ramchal discussed G-d’s use of character traits<\/em> there he’ll be concentrating on His thoughts <\/em>and actions<\/em> here.<\/p>\n

2<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I.e., His thoughts and processes.<\/p>\n

3<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I.e., our material thoughts and processes.<\/p>\n

4<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Which involve thoughts and processes beyond us.<\/p>\n

5<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When He deploys those thoughts and processes.<\/p>\n

6<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or what He does to a limited extent, as we’ll see below.<\/p>\n

7<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That is, He can bring two contradictory phenomena about at the same time.<\/p>\n

8<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ramchal is referring to what’s said in Torat<\/em> Cohanim<\/em>, Parshat<\/em> Vayikra<\/em> 2:10 here.<\/p>\n

9<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And thus ineffable.<\/p>\n

10<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of logic or of some other theoretical lawgiver.<\/p>\n

11<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Which could theoretically be placed on His abilities.<\/p>\n

12<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Which will be discussed next.<\/p>\n

(c) 2016 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman<\/p>\n

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org<\/a><\/p>\n

———————————————————-<\/p>\n

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here<\/a> at a discount.<\/p>\n

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here<\/a> at a discount as well.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).<\/p>\n

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence<\/a>\u201d and \u201cRamchal<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Da\u2019at Tevunot 1:13 (# 46 – 47) 1. There’s another thing about G-d’s interactions with us we’d do well to explain now 1. It’s that we’re only able to grasp the effects of G-d’s actions — not the means and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,3,4,5,6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hashkapha","category-jewish-thought","category-kabbalah","category-luzzatto","category-ramchal","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iqo7-1Z","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}