{"id":549,"date":"2017-09-27T15:47:19","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T15:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/?p=549"},"modified":"2017-09-27T15:47:46","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T15:47:46","slug":"derech-hashem-248","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/2017\/09\/27\/derech-hashem-248\/","title":{"rendered":"Derech Hashem 2:4:8"},"content":{"rendered":"

Derech<\/em>\u00a0Hashem<\/em>\u00a0– The Way of G-d 2:4:8<\/p>\n

G-d appointed 70 angelic administrators\u00a01<\/sup>\u00a0to oversee and govern the other nations in detail, albeit under His purview, while He Himself only does so broadly\u00a02<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

As such, it\u2019s written, \u201cyou alone have I known among all the families of the world\u201d (Amos 3:2)\u00a03<\/sup>. That\u2019s not to say that G-d is unaware of them: He\u2019s intimately aware of them as He is of everything and everyone\u00a04<\/sup>. The point is that He doesn\u2019t supervise or impact upon the particular details of their lives, as we\u2019ll see below\u00a05<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/p>\n

1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>Every nation was said to have its \u201cgenius\u201d \u2013 its unique nature, gift, and contribution to humanity \u2013 which was said to be derived for its \u201cgenie\u201d or \u201cguardian spirit\u201d in antiquity, all of which is close to the subject at hand. Ramchal\u2019s point seems to be that a nation\u2019s angelic administrator epitomises that nation\u2019s character and type and thus sees to it that it be brought about and maintained.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>See 2:4:3 which discusses the division of the world into 70 primal nations (aside from our own). Also, see\u00a0Klach<\/em>\u00a0Pitchei<\/em>\u00a0Chochma<\/em>\u00a031 and the end of\u00a0Pitchei<\/em>\u00a0Chochma<\/em>\u00a0v\u2019Da\u2019at<\/em>.<\/p>\n

2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>2:4:1-7 above serve as a sort of prelude to this section and to 2:4:9. For the entire thrust of Part 2 is\u00a0on Divine Providence, and while we\u2019d learned how G-d interacts with the Jewish Nation up to now, Ramchal is now touching upon that here in relation to others.<\/p>\n

His point here is that G-d only interacts with them broadly. Yet in\u00a0Da\u2019at<\/em>\u00a0Tevunot<\/em>\u00a036 Ramchal indicates that G-d Himself oversees\u00a0all things<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0all people<\/em>\u00a0in great detail! That\u2019s quite a discrepancy,<\/p>\n

As such we\u2019d say that whereas G-d has His angels tend to others for the \u201cmeanwhile\u201d, in the end He alone will have proven to have overseen each and every entity without exception \u2013 including the 70 Nations and the administrators that ruled over them.<\/p>\n

Also see 2:1:1.<\/p>\n

3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>It\u2019s important to stress that the rest of this verse reads, \u201ctherefore I will punish you for all your iniquities\u201d, which underscores the responsibility that goes with chosen-ness. And what\u2019s soon to follow, which underscores the continued relationship that G-d has with others as well, \u00a0likewise lessens the gleam of chosen-ness.<\/p>\n

4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>See 2:5:2 below.<\/p>\n

5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>See 2:5:3, but especially 2:6.<\/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\u00a0Hashem\u00a0– The Way of G-d 2:4:8 G-d appointed 70 angelic administrators\u00a01\u00a0to oversee and govern the other nations in detail, albeit under His purview, while He Himself only does so broadly\u00a02. As such, it\u2019s written, \u201cyou alone have I known among … 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-549","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\/549","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=549"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":552,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions\/552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}