{"id":378,"date":"2019-05-22T20:35:02","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T20:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/?p=378"},"modified":"2019-05-22T20:35:02","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T20:35:02","slug":"daat-tevunot-34-%c2%b6-116-beg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/2019\/05\/22\/daat-tevunot-34-%c2%b6-116-beg\/","title":{"rendered":"Da\u2019at Tevunot 3:4 (\u00b6 116 [beg.])"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Da\u2019at\nTevunot <\/em>3:4\n(\u00b6 116 [beg.])<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Ramchal\nis about to offer something that will serve as a prelude to what\u2019s to follow 1<\/sup>.\nIt\u2019s that even though G-d certainly had the ability from the first to create a\nuniverse before He actually created it, He still and all can\u2019t be said to have\nhad a mere \u201cpotential\u201d for doing it which then had to be \u201cactualized\u201d 2<\/sup>.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In\nfact, believing that He only potentially had that ability and that it had to be\nactualized is one of the mistaken assumptions made by those who believed that\nthe universe is eternal 3<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The\ntruth of the matter is that since it\u2019s simply impossible for us to comprehend anything\nabout G-d Himself 4 <\/sup>before He created the universe 5<\/sup>, it\nfollows then that we can\u2019t speak about states of \u201cpotentiality\u201d or of\n\u201cactualization\u201d, since that would necessitate arguments about things passing\nfrom a \u201cpotential\u201d state of before creation to one of them being \u201cactually\ncreated\u201d afterwards, and we\u2019re not equipped to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            What\u2019s\ntrue instead is that G-d created the notions and realities of \u201cpotential\u201d and\n\u201cactualization\u201d along with everything else at the point of creation, and He\nthen used that system to set everything in linear space and time 6<\/sup>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            That\u2019s\nwhy we\u2019re taught that \u201c(The phrase) \u2019In the beginning\u2019 7<\/sup> is also a\nstatement of creation\u201d (Rosh Hashanah 32a), even though it\u2019s different from all\nthe others 8<\/sup>. Because the phrase \u201cIn the beginning\u201d refers to the\nuniverse in toto in its potential state before it was actualized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            it\u2019s\njust that once G-d created the potential state, everything then actualized by\nmeans of the aforementioned \u201cemanations\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Footnotes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1                <\/sup>Let\u2019s\nquickly lay out the flow of ideas here so far and where they\u2019ll lead. Recall\nthat the overarching subject at hand is the whys and wherefores of wrong and\ninjustice (see 3:1). Along the way we discussed the \u201cemanations\u201d that G-d uses\nto manage the cosmos (3:2) which will be cited below and play a major role in\nthe creation of wrong and injustice. We then learned about the role of G-d\u2019s\nwill in those emanations (3:3), and we\u2019re about to dwell on another truism that\nwill help explain the existence of wrong and injustice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            All\nof this seeming obfuscation is unavoidable, we\u2019re afraid. For as we\u2019d indicated\nvery early on, one has to keep his \u201ceye on the ball\u201d when studying Da\u2019at Tevunot<\/em> (see 1:1:1), as so much is\ndiscussed in depth here that\u2019s of such importance that a lot of groundwork has\nto be laid in order to understand the truths \nto be revealed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Much\nof what\u2019s touched on in this chapter will be discussed in 7:11 below, and was\ncited to a degree in 1:19:2 above. Also see Moreh\nNevuchim<\/em> 2: 14, 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2                <\/sup>He can\u2019t be\nsaid to have changed from \u201cbeing potentially able to\u201d create the universe to\n\u201cactually able to\u201d, as His pristine self doesn\u2019t experience change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3                <\/sup>Those who\nbelieved that G-d had a latent trait that could only be actualized if a\nuniverse existed would then argue that since He\u2019s eternal, then a universe in\nwhich He could eventually manifest that trait had to have always existed, too.\nBut that\u2019s not so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4                <\/sup>And His\n\u201cenvironment\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5                <\/sup>Ramchal\ndiscussed this before; see 2:7 above for example. His point in repeating it here\nis to underscore the fact that even though we\u2019re discussing the pre-creation\nstate of things, we\u2019re still and all not touching upon His inherent self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6                <\/sup>The idea of\nthings being purposefully made to proceed from \u201cpotential\u201d to \u201cactual\u201d is\ndiscussed here because the analogous idea of things proceeding from \u201ccause\u201d to\n\u201ceffect\u201d — which is a major pattern that G-d uses in His management of the\nuniverse — will be cited in 3:5 below. The point again is that all of that had\nto have been created outright; it isn\u2019t an inherent part of reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The\nother point is that their creation underscores just how radically thorough<\/em>\nthe act of creation was. We\u2019re conditioned to thinking that there has never\nbeen a time when there wasn\u2019t \u201ctime\u201d (or, the notions of \u201cbefore\u201d and \u201cafter\u201d,\n\u201cpotential\u201d and actual, and \u201ccause\u201d and effect\u201d) and that there\u2019ll never be a\ntime without any of that, as if they were all set and fundamental elements of\nreality. In fact, we\u2019re also conditioned to think of \u201creality\u201d as we know it to\nbe a fundamental element of the cosmos, and that without it there\u2019d simply be\nno existence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The\ntruth is that everything but everything both abstruse and concrete had to have\nbeen created by G-d. Each instance of \u201csomething\u201d was created anew out of the\nessential \u201cnothingness\u201d that preceded it. Time, reality, potentiality, cause,\nand everything else in the here-and-now could have remained un-created and\nforever subsumed in the vast and terrible never-to-have-been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7                <\/sup>Which starts\nthe statement that \u201cIn the beginning<\/em> G-d created the heavens and the\nearth\u201d (Genesis 1:1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>Because the others begin with a directive that\u2019s immediately followed by a fulfillment, as in \u201cG-d said, \u2018Let there be light\u2019 and there was light\u201d (1:3), \u201cAnd G-d said, \u2018Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water\u2019 … and it was so\u201d (1:6-7), etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(c) 2019 Rabbi Yaakov\nFeldman<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

———————————————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rabbi\nFeldman’s new annotated translation of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag\u2019s \u201cIntroduction to\nthe Zohar\u201d is available as \u201cThe Kabbalah of Self\u201d on Kindle here<\/a>. His annotated translation of Maimonides’ “Eight\nChapters” is available here<\/a> and his annotated translation of Rabbeinu Yonah\u2019s\n“The Gates of Repentance” is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Rabbi\nFeldman also offers two free e-mail classes torah.org<\/a> entitled \u201cSpiritual Excellence<\/a>\u201d and \u201cRamchal<\/a>\u201d that can be subscribed to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Da\u2019at Tevunot 3:4 (\u00b6 116 [beg.]) 1.             Ramchal is about to offer something that will serve as a prelude to what\u2019s to follow 1. It\u2019s that even though G-d certainly had the ability from the first to create a … 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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iqo7-66","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","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=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions\/379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}