{"id":523,"date":"2017-05-21T22:14:12","date_gmt":"2017-05-21T22:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/?p=523"},"modified":"2017-05-21T22:14:12","modified_gmt":"2017-05-21T22:14:12","slug":"derech-hashem-245","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/2017\/05\/21\/derech-hashem-245\/","title":{"rendered":"Derech Hashem 2:4:5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Derech<\/em> Hashem<\/em> – The Way of G-d 2:4:5<\/p>\n

Now, just as all of Adam and Eve\u2019s descendants were originally divided into source \u201ctrees\u201d with \u201cbranches\u201d, each subsequent \u201ctree\u201d was able to yield its own \u201cbranches\u201d which could then produce their own off-springs 1<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Abraham\u2019s \u201cbranches\u201d 2<\/sup> could only number 600,000, which is the number of Jews who left Egypt, received the Torah at Mount Sinai 3<\/sup>, and inherited the Land of Israel 4<\/sup>, who thus comprised the essential Jewish Nation. All Jews who descended from them are considered their \u201cbranches\u201d and off-spring.<\/p>\n

The other nations were given one more opportunity to achieve their spiritual potential — when the Torah was given to us and they, too, were offered it 5<\/sup>. Had they in fact accepted it, they\u2019d have been given the same spiritual potential as the Jewish people, but they declined it. Their fate was then sealed and the gate 6 <\/sup>was permanently closed 7<\/sup>. Still and all as we said, any individual non-Jew can decide to attach him- or herself onto Abraham\u2019s \u201ctree\u201d 8<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/p>\n

1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>Without restriction.<\/p>\n

2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>On the other hand.<\/p>\n

3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>Ramchal spoke of the centrality of the revelation at Mount Sinai in a number of his works. See for example Da\u2019at<\/em> Tevunot<\/em> 78, 159, Tikkunim<\/em> Chadashim<\/em> 21, 33, 42, and Klach<\/em> Pitchei<\/em> Chochma<\/em> 30.<\/p>\n

4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>He also spoke of the centrality of the Land of Israel in several of his works. See for example Adir<\/em> Bamarom<\/em> p. 235; also see Ma\u2019amar<\/em> Hachochma<\/em> (Tephillat<\/em> Rosh<\/em> Hashanah<\/em>) for the relationship between it and the Jewish Nation.<\/p>\n

5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>See Avoda<\/em> Zara<\/em> 2b.<\/p>\n

6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>Of access to that special level.<\/p>\n

7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>See 2:4:2 where it\u2019s said that \u201chumanity has been granted the freedom to choose to ascend to a very great level. It\u2019s just that there\u2019s a time limit within which we can do that\u201d.<\/p>\n

8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>That\u2019s to say that the Jewish Nation was purposely set up from the start to be a small, \u201ctight\u201d corps of agents of change and rectification which can take on new members but will never be large.<\/p>\n

(c) 2017 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman<\/p>\n

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

———————————————————-<\/p>\n

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

He 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 torah.org entitled \u201cSpiritual Excellence<\/a>\u201d and \u201cRamchal<\/a>\u201d that can be subscribed to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Derech Hashem – The Way of G-d 2:4:5 Now, just as all of Adam and Eve\u2019s descendants were originally divided into source \u201ctrees\u201d with \u201cbranches\u201d, each subsequent \u201ctree\u201d was able to yield its own \u201cbranches\u201d which could then produce their … 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":[14,2,3,4,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hashkapha","category-jewish-thought","category-kabbalah","category-ramchal","category-torah","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iqof-8r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":525,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions\/525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}