{"id":381,"date":"2019-07-10T20:40:45","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T20:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/?p=381"},"modified":"2019-07-10T20:40:45","modified_gmt":"2019-07-10T20:40:45","slug":"daat-tevunot-35-%c2%b6s-116-end-117","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/2019\/07\/10\/daat-tevunot-35-%c2%b6s-116-end-117\/","title":{"rendered":"Da\u2019at Tevunot 3:5 (\u00b6s 116 [end] – 117)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Da\u2019at\nTevunot <\/em>3:5\n(\u00b6s 116 [end] – 117)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

              Ramchal says that he\u2019s going to expand upon things he\u2019d\nsaid above 1<\/sup> and reveal things that are \u201cdeep\u201d about \u201cthe very makeup\nof the universe\u201d which will prove to be true \u201cthroughout its various time-frames\u201d\n2<\/sup>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              The overarching principle is this, he says: At bottom\nG-d wants to emanate His goodness upon us, so He brought about a mechanism for\nthe emission of light and emanations from His being that would be appropriate for\nus 3<\/sup>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

              G-d originally meant for it to be an emanation of sheer\nholiness 4<\/sup> and for the eventual consequences of it to be holy, too, like\nangels. Thus, Ramchal remarks, the main reason why G-d brought about this\nemanation was for us to eventually enjoy an element of His own holiness 5<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              But, since G-d specifically wanted a lesser, lower\nworld to exist, He saw to it that that emanation would be diminished and would bring\nabout lower, material phenomena 6<\/sup>, despite the fact that that\u2019s\nclearly a downgrading of the emanation\u2019s nature and was not the reason it was\ncreated in the first place 7<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Thus ironically, the coarse and material things that we\nsee in the world that were produced by these emanations are in fact a\ndiminution and a degradation of this mechanism which is from G-d Himself, who\nis the source of perfection and holiness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Nevertheless, it was G-d\u2019s plan to cover-over His\nemanations with darkness for the meanwhile, until He will see to it that the emanation\nwill no longer be covered-over, and reality itself will prove to be \u201choly to\nG-d\u201d 8<\/sup>. That is, the emanation will continue to be covered-over that\nway as long as we function in this realm 9<\/sup>. But that those covers\nwill eventually be stripped away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Thus we learn that the impetus behind all of the\nvarious twists and turns of time and human history is to vary and to eventually\nfully elevate it until the world will achieve its ultimate goal of allowing for\nall of creation to be holy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              The point of the matter is firstly\nthat G-d allowed for an emanation to emit from Himself to us whose purpose was\nto draw holiness down to us from Him. Secondly, that He created mechanisms that\nwere to allow for lesser and lower emanations despite the emanations\u2019 inherent\nholiness 10<\/sup>. And thirdly, that He created within this emanation\nitself the various instances of ruination we\u2019d mentioned, and He rooted all of\nthis in the eventual revelation of His supreme sovereignty as we\u2019d cited 11<\/sup>.\n              <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Thus, all of these lesser things are a product and\nfundamental element of G-d\u2019s having hidden His \u201ccountenance\u201d, while His\neventual revelation of His supreme sovereignty will ultimately result in the\nstripping away of these limitations 12<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

1                <\/sup>About\nthe place and makeup of wrong and injustice, and specifically about its being a\nproduct of the \u201cemanation\u201d cited above (albeit a weakened version of it as\nwe\u2019ll see).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2                <\/sup>Frankly,\ncould any student of truth, meaning, and ultimate purpose turn his or her head\naway when someone of Ramchal\u2019s caliber says something like that? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3                <\/sup>One\npoint is that this mechanism has to be tailored to our beings, as too much light\nand goodness would obliterate us and too little would barely maintain us. The\nother is that this mechanism isn\u2019t at all intrinsic to the universe: it had to\nhave been created. For, everything but everything — each moment, each phenomenon, each\nlife, each spectacle, each wilt — each and every instance of this and that from<\/em> time immemorial to<\/em> time immemorial is rooted in and\nsustained by emanations from G-d\u2019s own Being. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              It\u2019s\nalso important to understand that this discussion purposefully follows the one\nin 3:4 above about G-d having created \u201cpotentials\u201d and \u201cactualizations\u201d, as his\noverarching point here is that wrong, evil, injustice, and the like were always\npotential in the creation of the universe and in G-d\u2019s plans for it; and that\nwhat can\u2019t be denied either is that G-d allowed for it to be actualized (for\nHis own good reasons and by means of the diminished emanations discussed\nbelow).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4                <\/sup>See\n2:5 above about the fact that holiness is a consequence of G-d\u2019s shining His\n\u201ccountenance\u201d upon us, which is spoken of below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Also see Clallim<\/em> Rishonim<\/em> 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5                <\/sup>See\n3:10 below about this occurring in The World to Come. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              And see Ch. 1 of Messilat<\/em> Yesharim<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6                <\/sup>That\nare oftentimes un-G-dly, wrongful and utterly unholy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7                <\/sup>Which\nwas to allow for a full-flowering of His beneficence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              That is, despite the fact that G-d\u2019s beneficence is\nboundless and lush, He still and all tempered and curbed it — and left it on\nwhat we might call a \u201cbrown-out\u201d, a less than optimal level — in order to\nallow for some simply earthly and mundane, and even wrongful and unjust things\nto go on, which is our concern here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              See 1:15 above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8                <\/sup>See\nLeviticus 27:30 and especially Deuteronomy 14:2. Also see 4:10 below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              See Ramchal\u2019s Ma\u2019amar<\/em> Hareusin<\/em>, Ma\u2019amar<\/em>\nHayichud<\/em>, and Adir<\/em> Bamarom<\/em> pp. 440-441 for a fuller,\nkabalistic discussion of the implications of this all, which helps to explain\njust why Ramchal refers to this all as a \u201cdeep\u201d phenomenon that\u2019s true of \u201cthe\nvery makeup of the universe\u201d throughout its \u201cvarious time-frames\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9                <\/sup>I.e.,\nthe realm that Ramchal refers to in the text is termed the era of Divine\nservice, which is to say, the realm in which we continue to serve G-d through\nthe mitzvah-system<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10              <\/sup>Which\nare nevertheless appropriate to our world\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11              <\/sup>See\n1:3 above, etc. Also see Klach<\/em> Pitchei<\/em> Chochma<\/em> 39.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12              <\/sup>See 3:3\nabove about G-d hiding His \u201ccountenance\u201d as well as 3:8 below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Some unnecessary repetition and redundancy follows in\nthe text of this chapter which Rabbi Yoseph Spinner has discovered isn\u2019t found\nin the first edition of Da\u2019at<\/em> Tevunot<\/em>, so we\u2019ll end this chapter\nhere.<\/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 3:5 (\u00b6s 116 [end] – 117) 1.               Ramchal says that he\u2019s going to expand upon things he\u2019d said above 1 and reveal things that are \u201cdeep\u201d about \u201cthe very makeup of the universe\u201d which will prove to … 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-381","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\/p7iqo7-69","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381","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=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions\/382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/daattevunot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}