Derech Hashem

The class can be found here.

 1:1:3

The next thing is that G-d’s existence is “imperative” — “He simply couldn’t not exist”, if we or anything else are to exist [1]. Let’s explain these ideas.

By definition, an imperative is either a “prerequisite”, or something that’s “absolutely required”. When we think of a “prerequisite” or something “absolutely required”, we’re immediately drawn back to school, where there were always prerequisite courses we had to take before we could either go further on or graduate. With that in mind we’ll take the expression that G-d’s existence is “imperative” to mean that He simply has to exist if anything else is to follow and to advance. So, “G-d simply couldn’t not exist” because if He didn’t exist nothing else could either exist from the first or go onward.

There’s an emotional sense of the term “imperative”, too. It refers to the fact that when we have an “imperative need” for something, we experience an acute, aching, burning desire for it, and we could be said to be “in pain” without it. So in that sense of the word, you and I can be said to experience a deep and existential “imperative need” for G-d all the time. We simply couldn’t exist, couldn’t “go on” without Him.

But there’s another point being made here, and it’s that G-d isn’t simply an adjunct (however great and Almighty) to creation, or merely its Originator — He is its Source, its Soul, and its Life. And it denies spontaneous generation, which is to say, creation by happenstance, chance, or as a consequence of the stuff of core physical and chemical reactions. Without Him — if one could even posit such a reality — nothing whatsoever would exist, period. That’s why He’s referred as The Supreme Being or The Most High [2].

Notes:

[1]          See Ma’amar HaIkkurim (“BaBorei Yitbarach”) and Ma’amar HaChochma (“Aleinu Leshabaiyach”). Also see Yesodei HaTorah 1:2.

Understand, of course, that these ideas don’t explain anything about G-d Himself.  It would be absurd to say that His own existence is “imperative” if He Himself is to exist as well as absurd to say that He “simply couldn’t not exist” if He’s to exist.

[2]          See Numbers 24:16, Deuteronomy 32:8, 2 Samuel 22:14, Psalms 7:17, 91:1 as well as Tikkunei Zohar 17a and Pardes 3:1.

(c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman 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 on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.

The class can be found here.

1:1:2

The next thing is that only G-d can comprehend His true Being; we simply cannot [1]. But to fully understand that we’d need to point out that there are two perspectives from which to approach G-d: first, as He is Himself, within His own Essential Being, where He’s said to be “transcendent” (beyond us); and second, as He is when He relates to His created phenomena and is said to be “imminent” (close to us) [2].

Let’s quickly make ourselves clear, though. Make no mistake about it — there’s only one G-d, and He is who He is wherever He is and from whichever perspective we’re referring to. We’re merely referring to when we can experience Him or when we can’t.

When G-d is alone in His own Essential Being, He is utterly, utterly unfathomable and out of our experience. That’s to say that it’s as impossible to grasp Him when He’s in His own Being as it is to fully and truly grasp what’s on someone’s mind at any one moment.

For were I to catch you deep in thought, I might assume you’re thinking about this or that either because that’s what you tend to think about, that’s what I’d be thinking about, or that’s what most people in your situation would be thinking about. But I really couldn’t know. And were I to offer that you were thinking about one thing or another, I might be partially right — but only partially so. Because while you might indeed be thinking about eating, for example, as I’d claim, you might also be thinking about money, your umbrella, daisies, the color ochre, etc., etc. And though you could indeed be thinking about eating, you might nonetheless be thinking about eating a wholly different way than I’d ever imagine.

In any event, just as I can never know you as you are, from within in all your fullness, though I can know you from without to some extent from your actions– I can likewise never know G-d from within, though I can know Him somewhat from His actions [3].

Ramchal goes on to say that what we do know about Him as He is, though, is that He’s “utterly whole” and lacks for nothing [4]. That is, that He’s utterly self-contained and self-sufficient, utterly independent [5].

How do we know that? From the prophets [6], from ancient traditions, and from personal, soul-based experience, Ramchal offers [7]. And he cites a verse to illustrate that which reads “Take great care… never to forget what you saw with your own eyes… and let your children and your grandchildren (etc.) know about the day you stood before G-d your Lord at Horeb (i.e., Mount Sinai)” (Deuteronomy 4:9-10).

In other words, as our sages put it, each one of us was at Mount Sinai on a soul-level when G-d appeared in His utter wholeness there [8]; and it thus behooves us to perpetuate that “racial memory” in the here and now by passing it on through the tradition.

Interestingly enough, though, Ramchal hears the objections of some skeptics out there, and offers that, in point of fact, G-d’s utter wholeness can also be verified logically [9] demonstrated in nature, and can be derived from physics and astronomy. And the suggestion is that the curious would do well to study their works, or arrive at their own proofs.

But he declares that we won’t be depending on such proofs in this work, but rather on the principles laid down by the tradition attesting to G-d’s wholeness, which he’ll thus be presenting in the course of this work.

There are two things to be said about that. First, that Ramchal’s point seems to be that logical, experimental insight invariably comes upon a brick wall when it tries to fathom the unfathomable. But at least it somewhat satisfies the testy soul who will not give in.

And second, that while we might not be able to recall the “racial memory” of experiencing G-d up close at Mount Sinai for ourselves, studying the traditions about it and sensing it deep in the heart that way is next best.

Notes:

[1]          As it’s written, “His greatness cannot be fathomed” (Psalms 145:3). That’s because     our thoughts are of a whole different order than G-d’s; as it’s written, “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways’, declares the L-rd. ‘For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts (higher) than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

See Da’at Tevunot 32-33; also see 39-40 there where Ramchal lays out the difference between G-d’s thought process and our own. See Moreh Nevuchim 1:58.

At bottom it comes to this, like everything else, our thought processes, logic itself, intuition, and the like — that’s to say, everything that we use to fathom things — was created by G-d outright in the course of creation. So G-d Himself, who preceded all that, cannot be fathomed by anything that came about in the course of creation.

Ramchal makes the astounding point elsewhere that the creation of the universe — the creation of all of reality — is just one of G-d’s capabilities (see Ginzei Ramchal pp. 226- 227, 247, also see Da’at Tevunot 54, and Klach Pitchei Chochma 24). The implication is that He could (and might still, we just don’t know) have occupied Himself with wholly other things. So is it any wonder that we know very, very little about Him other than in relation to the reality we know of?

[2]          See Megillah 31a and Zohar 3:225a for a discussion of G-d’s transcendence and immanence. The verse “Holy, holy, holy is G-d of Hosts, the whole world is full of His Glory” (Isaiah 6:3) refers to His immanence, while the one that reads “Blessed is G-d’s Glory from His place” (Ezekiel 3:12) refers to His transcendence.

[3]          See Da’at Tevunot 80 and Adir Bamarom p. 209 for a discussion of knowing G-d through His actions as opposed to through His Being. Also see Moreh Nevuchim 1:58-59.

[4]          See 1:2:1 below, as well as Yesodei HaTorah 2:8, Moreh Nevuchim 3:19, Emunot v’De’ot 1:4, and Sefer HaIkarim 2:1.

[5]          Hence G-d is entirely and truly free, immortal, and all-powerful in ways we can’t fathom. See final paragraph of note 1 above.

[6]          See Ma’amar HaVichuach Choker u’Mekubal (in Sha’arei Ramchal p.31).

[7]          Based on his research into the original text of Derech Hashem, R’ Yoseph Spinner points out that from this juncture until the end of 1:1:2 what’s written is encased in brackets, and that it serves as a sort of addendum which the original publisher placed in the text itself. Some may think that this would seem to indicate that Ramchal may not have written this part himself and that it was added in by an editor or someone else. But that doesn’t seem likely, given that Ramchal said in the text of 1:1:5 below, “This too is one of the things we know of from the tradition, which we’d written of already”, referring to his remarks here in 1:1:2.

He also made the same point about the revelation at Mount Sinai (and more), though, in his Introduction to his Ma’amar HaVichuach Choker u’Mekubal (in Sha’arei Ramchal pp. 29-31). Also see Yesodei HaTorah Ch. 8.

[8]          See Rashi and Ramban to Deuteronomy 29:14.

[9]          See the first gate of Chovot HaLevovot.

(c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman 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 on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.

The class can be found here.

1:1:1

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto offers that there are a number of things about G-d Almighty each one of us needs to both know and believe.

He apparently combines the two, because Rambam (Maimonides) said in one context that we’re to know certain fundamentals of the faith including the fact of G-d’s existence [1], and in another he said that we’re to believe them [2]. It appears that Ramchal contends that we’d need to do both at the same time.

So much for the more academic answer to the question of why both knowing and believing are listed. We’d like to approach it differently now, and ask a couple of questions based on the combination. First, what’s the difference between believing and knowing? And why, for our purposes, did Ramchal combine them?

The best way to define the difference between knowing and believing is to imagine being without either. It seems that not believing is more personally and existentially threatening, and more darkly dire than not knowing. Because I’m convinced that if I don’t know something, I can always learn it; while if I don’t believe it, I’m left somehow “stranded”. And in fact, many of our Sages have taught that belief is higher than knowledge [3].

But not knowing threatens, also. Knowing for example why something bad happened to me seems to dampen the pain and lend solace while not knowing seems to gnaw at my being and oppress me.

Apparently Ramchal’s point is that we’re to somehow or another so internalize the truth of G-d’s existence, so convince ourselves of His living presence that both the dark, dread lack of faith in Him, and the bleak, dulling lack of knowledge of G-d’s ways in the world simply disappear.

But how do we ever do that?

This may help. Notice how Ramchal titled this work “The Way of G-d” in the singular, rather than the ways? It seems he put it in the singular because a major point of his throughout his writings is that all-in-all G-d has one broad way or agenda, if you will (with many, many narrow paths or side-agendas along the way leading up to it). He intends to allow the universe to reach perfection in the end [4].

Eventually grasping that — learning it and fully believing it in one’s heart and soul — will have us both know and believe. And in fact a great part of the gift of this book will be its underscoring the fact of G-d’s ultimate agenda in light of His many side-agendas.

That having been said, what are we to believe and know about Him after all?

The first thing is that G-d’s the first being; and that He existed before anything or anyone else, and will continue to exist after everything and everyone is gone [5].

But that’s curious. If He’s the first being, of course He existed before anything or anyone else. What’s Ramchal’s point? What’s the difference?

Perhaps we can explain G-d’s being termed the “first being” this way.

Were we to somehow or another appear out of nowhere and come upon reality for the first time, the first being we’d notice — the most obvious and preeminent Being — would be G-d. Simply because we hadn’t yet had a chance to take His presence for granted, and hadn’t yet been waylaid by all the other things that have us overlook Him.

G-d will eventually prove to have existed before everything else, too. But knowing that would come later, after we’d have withstood the alarm and stun of catching sight of His presence in the first place.

Again, we’re also told that He will continue to exist after everything and everyone is gone. Why would we need to know that, too?

This seems to be the best way to illustrate and explain G-d’s preceding and succeeding everything and everyone. Imagine a grand concert full of roil and thunder, high pitches, low pitches, gravitas and piccolo. And imagine it beginning with a single, bold note that somehow or another threads its way throughout the concert and appears again at the concert’s end.

Wouldn’t that single note prove to have defined the concert in retrospect and to have given it its heft?

That’s exactly Ramchal’s point. G-d’s ineffable presence defines reality and gives it its heft. And that by being the first and last, He is the better part of the whole.

His final point here is that G-d — and G-d alone — both created and maintains everything [6].

Simply put, that comes to deny the power of anything or anyone else to truly and utterly create out of the blue. And it comes to underscore the fact that G-d not only created us, he also maintains our beings moment by moment. Returning to our musical analogy, we’d add that G-d not only pressed His lips (if you will) to the mouth of our beings to start “playing” us (i.e., to animate us), He continues to, throughout the concert.

Notes:

[1]       Yesodei HaTorah 1:1.

[2]       Sefer HaMitzvot, Positive Mitzvot 1 (some who are well-versed in the classical Arabic in which this work was written indicate that the word used here should also read “to know” rather than to believe, but that’s beside the point for our purposes here since Ramchal did indeed use the word “believe” here).

[3]       See 1:1:2 below where it’s pointed out that the Jewish experience of faith in G-d is actually based on knowledge of Him, in that it’s rooted in His revelation of Himself to our ancestors at Mount Sinai rather than on a vague, tenuous sense of His existence (but see our note there). That combination would explain why Ramchal commends both at the same time.

As to which matters more, faith or knowledge, some say belief is more important. That’s because we’re told that “the righteous lives by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4), that “Abraham believed in G-d” (Genesis 15:6) and that our people are consequently to be depicted as “believers and the children of believers” (Shabbat 97a) above all else.

Others say that we’re to build on that faith and to gain knowledge of G-d since we’re told that one is to “know (and understand) the G-d of your father” (1 Chronicles 28:9) and to “Lift up your eyes to the stars and see (and understand) Who created them” (Isaiah 40:26).

Ramchal himself indicated elsewhere, though, that he favored knowledge over pure faith (see Ma’amar HaIkkurim 1 which, interestingly enough, parallels this statement in Derech Hashem but doesn’t cite belief; Klallim Mitoch Sefer Milchamot Moshe 1; and the beginning of Da’at Tevunot).

[4]       Ramchal wrote that G-d created the universe so that there would beings to benefit from His generosity by virtue of the reward for their own correct choice of actions, and that they would ultimately perfect the universe with those choices (see beginning of Klallei Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at). He returned to those themes again and again (see for example Kinat Hashem Tzivaot p. 76, his comments to R’ Chaim Vitale’s Otzrot Chaim as found in Ginzei Ramchal p. 297, and Iggerot Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at p. 404 there). The “generosity” spoken of there refers to the eradication of all wrongdoing and the revelation of G-d’s presence (see Klach Pitchei Chochma 4) which is the ultimate reward for all goodness and the ultimate consequence of universal perfection. And see 1:2:1 below which spells this out very well.

[5]       See Ramchal’s Ma’amar HaIkkurim 1, Klallei Ma’amar HaChochma 1, and Klallei Kinat Hashem Tzivakot 3, and Klallei Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 6; also see Breishit Rabbah 81:2, Yesodei HaTorah 1:10, and Emunot v’De’ot 2:10.

[6]       See Ramban to Exodus 20:2 where he addresses G-d as being both the G-d of creation and of history (meaning to say that He maintains the universe so as to be active in it); also see Sefer HaChinuch 25.

(c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman 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 on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.

For some reason I couldn’t upload the image of R’ Baum’s commentary, but it’s entitled Eit La’asot, it’s voluminous and intelligent, and I recommend it highly.

This will be our last entry of commentaries unless a new one comes about.

R’ Spinner is one of the leading students of Ramchal in this generation. R’ Shriki (cited above) often draws upon his manuscript research and other insights. This commentary is based on R’ Spinner’s manuscript readings and comparisons, and it offers thematic analysis.

(c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman 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 on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.

This edition is published by Machon Ramchal, which is headed by R’ Mordechai Shriki, who wrote its commentary.

I consider R’ Shriki to be the leading Ramchal scholar of the generation: he “gets” Ramchal on all levels, and this edition — while small — expresses a lot of his expertise. He refers there to his other works, such as his edition of Da’at Tevunot, and others; and one would do well to refer to those other Shriki works.

(c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

———————————————————-

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here at a discount.

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here at a discount as well.

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman 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 on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.