Monthly Archives: December 2010

We’ve been taught that God alone created the universe and governs it; but how and with what mechanism? Well, we’re told quite simply that “the world was created through ten utterances” (Pirkei Avot 5:1) and by means of ten agencies termed “wisdom, understanding, reason, strength, rebuke, might, righteousness, judgment, loving-kindness, and compassion” (Chagigah 12a). Those then are the mechanisms, which the Kabbalists termed the ten Sephirot.

Based essentially on the verse found in 1 Chronicles 29:11, the Kabbalists termed them Keter (Crown), Chochma (Wisdom), Binah (Understanding), Tipheret (Beauty), Chessed (Kindness), Gevurah (Severity), Netzach (Victory), Hod (Glory), Yesod (Foundation), and Malchut (Kingship). And the lot of them, in combination and individually, will be discussed at length in Klach [1].

Ramchal depicted them here as follows: “each Sephira is an attribute (or “capacity”) of The Infinite that He used to create the (various esoteric and concrete) worlds and which He (now) uses to govern them” (Petach 6).

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Notes:

[1]       Ramchal speaks of Sephirot in quite a number of his works including Da’at Tevunot 46; Klallim Rishonim 1, 23; Klallei Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 2; Klallei Ma’amar HaChochma 2-6, 16; Klallalim m’Sefer Kinot Adonai Tziva’ot 5; Klallot Shorshei HaChochma; Klallim Mitoch Sefer Milchamot Moshe 2; Ma’amar Areimat Yadi; Sod HaYichud; Biurim l’Sefer Otzrot Chaim 2; Asarah Orot 6; Ma’amar HaVichuach 42-56, 126, 134, 152; Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at 27; Klallot HaIlan 1:1; Klallei Chochmat HaEmet 3 and onward; Iggerot Ramchal 3, 23; Tikkunim Chadashim 69; Adir Bamarom; and Derech Hashem 3:2:3, 4:6:13.

For earlier references see Sefer Yetzirah (especially 1:14), Zohar 2 p. 136b ff., Tikkunei Zohar 12b, Zohar Chadash, Yitro 33b; Moshe Cordovero’s Pardes Rimmonim 8:2, Elima Rabbati 6:2, Shiur Komah Ch. 2; and Ari’s Eitz Chaim 5:5.

(c) 2010 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”.

We’ll be beginning Section 2 now, entitled Sephirot, which is comprised of Petachim 5 and 6.

Starting off with a review of the classical sources of the concept of the Sephirot, we’ll then present some pre-Ari definitions, and then offer Ari’s own, given that Ramchal’s approach is rooted in Ari’s.

After that we’ll offer our translation of the Mishnayot of Petachim 5 and 6, then an analysis of the section en toto, bit by bit.

(c) 2010 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”.

As we’d pointed out a few paragraphs back, Ramchal contends that one of the major factors of the God Yichud is the detail that all bad will revert to goodness once His Yichud is revealed; we’ll end this section with a discussion of that.

As Ramchal words it here, “in the end all harm will be rectified and all wrong will revert to actual goodness. And God’s Yichud will thus be revealed” (Petach 4) [1]. For in fact, “wrongfulness reverting to goodness is itself the mystery of the complete (revelation of God’s) Yichud” (comments to Petach 4).

But the idea of all wrong reverting to goodness seems highly problematic to say the least; for one thing, because Ramchal seems to say something else at other points. He indicates a number of times that wrong will eventually be undone after having been defeated by goodness, both in every individual’s lifetime and in the course of human history [2], which is far less radical and much more consistent with the prevailing view. But that’s clearly not his contention here in Klach.

The notion that all wrong will revert to goodness is also challenging because it seems to imply that everyone will “get off scot-free” in the end, if you will [3]; or that the breakdown of right versus wrong will ultimately prove to be meaningless or useless. So let’s see how Ramchal addresses those issues.

One point to be made is that wrongdoers will not “get away with murder” whatsoever, as the expression goes, in that “everything will (eventually) be utterly perfected and rectified … either through repentance or retribution” (commentary to Petach 1), and thus fairly and deservedly rather than arbitrarily [4]. And each person will indeed be made to answer for his or her deeds [5].

Why then did God create evil in the first place if it’s only going to be destroyed in the end? Because God’s ultimate “goal wouldn’t be reached otherwise” (commentary to Petach 2). For wrong will prove to have functioned as a “straw man” if you will, who seems to thwart God’s wishes. Once it is done away with, though, it will be clear that “whatever we perceive as ostensibly thwarting His will only does so because He permitted it to” (commentary to Petach 1).

As such, wrong was created to be destroyed, and God’s having done that was comparable to someone “breaking (something) so as to fix (it later on)” (commentary to Petach 4), meaning to say on purpose and for a constructive end. And as a consequence, “whatever is initially wrongful (by all appearances) … will undoubtedly (prove to be) good in the end (Petach 2), and “and it will (thus) be realized and clear in retrospect that there is only one Ruler” (commentary to Petach 2) [6].

This completes “On the Revelation of God’s Yichud and His Beneficence”. Ramchal provides us with this fine encapsulation of it:

“Several things are involved here. First, God’s Yichud will actually be revealed. Since this involves having evil revert back to goodness, that couldn’t actually come about until evil was actualized in the lower realms. Secondly, the revelation of God’s Yichud will be so precious that (those who experience it) will enjoy great delight when they attain it. Thirdly, since this revelation involves an initial concealment, that fact allows a place for (our Divine) service (in life) and it allows for reward when it’s experienced…. But as soon as God’s Yichud will be revealed, there will no longer be a need for (our Divine) service” (comments to Petach 4) [7].

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Notes:

[1]       See the statement that all “wrong was created to be undone (in the end)” Da’at Tevunot 124. Also see Ginzei Ramchal p. 247.

[2]       See for example Iggerot Ramchal 4, 14, 23; Klallim Rishonim pp. 294-295; Ma’amar HaGeulah, and elsewhere. See Y. Avivi’s analysis on pp. 98-100 of Zohar Ramchal with examples offered, as well as his argument there (as well as on pp. 206-208, 289) that Ramchal’s views evolved over time to the one expressed here. But see R’ Shriki’s arguments against that chronology in Rechev Yisrael p. 180 note 53*. Also see R’ Friedlander’s statement at the end of the first paragraph on p. 36 (English pagination) in his edition of Klach.

But one need only read the following statement by Ramchal to understand his intentions: “The left (side; i.e., the side of wrong) will (first) be subdued by the right (side; i.e., the side of goodness) when good will dominate, and (then) wrong will revert to goodness” (Sod HaYichud in Ginzei Ramchal p. 264). Also see the discussion near the end of BT Yoma (86b) to the affect that one’s sins will be turned to merits rather than just atoned for when he repents out of a true love of God, which will presumably be true of all of humankind when God’s Yichud will become manifest.

[3]       As Ramchal puts it here, “In the end, all people, whether righteous or wrongful, will enjoy (God’s) largess” (commentary to Petach 2).

[4]       See Derech Hashem 2:3:5, 9; Messilat Yesharim Ch. 5; and R’ Friedlander’s note 461, on p. 187 of his edition of Da’at Tevunot.

[5]       After indicating that “all people, whether righteous or wrongful, will enjoy (God’s) largess” as we cited in our note above Ramchal then indicated there that “however, God has to deal with each individual according to his ways” (commentary to Petach 2). His point there is to not only underscore Divine Justice but to also indicate how that too helps explain God’s Yichud. For as he goes on there to say, “for (while) it’s necessary to punish the wrongful, (that’s only) in order to exonerate them afterwards. (After all,) if His intention was to reject the wrongful, they should actually be destroyed rather than be punished so as to be purified later on. The fact that they are punished to benefit them later is clear proof that His will is only for good” (commentary to Petach 2).

[6]       See Ramchal’s comments to Petach 49 on p. 180.

Also see R’ Shriki’s thorough treatment of the matter on pp. 168-180 of his edition of Da’at Tevunot, and on pp. 229-281 in Rechev Yisrael

We contend, though, that at bottom Ramchal’s point is that given that God Himself is goodness itself (see Derech Hashem 1:2 and Klach 30 p. 101, and the statement that “there’s no wrong either in ‘The Beginning’ or ‘The End’, as everything is good (i.e. God) then” [Sod HaYichud in Ginzei Ramchal p. 264]), it thus follows that when wrongfulness is undone, reality as we know it will implode upon itself as well (see our note 2 to this section), and “all wrong will revert to actual goodness” (Petach 4), i.e., Godliness.

[7]       Also see Adir Bamarom p. 393.

(c) 2010 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”.

In any event, the idea of wrongfulness then descended downward until it concretized into acts of veritable wrong, injustice, and evil. And that’s where we come in.

Our being faced with and challenged by wrong is what allows us free choice, as we said, which gives us the wherewithal to reject it for our own good, and to eventually achieve true transcendence and perfection. So we see that as far as we’re concerned, wrong is meant to act as a prod for us to grow ethically and spiritually (much the way personal challenges often enable their sufferers to transcend their physical and emotional limitations) [1].

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Notes:

[1]       As he writes, “the Divine service that was granted to humankind rests on the idea that both right and wrong (actions) were created in the world and that humans were placed in the (ethical) middle so as to chose right (actions)” (Derech Hashem 2:3:1), so “it became necessary for there to be a yetzer harah that could control a person (and have him make wrong ethical choices), which he might nonetheless sometimes overcome as well” (Adir Bamarom p. 88).

(c) 2010 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”.

First of all, where did wrong, injustice, and evil ever come from anyway if God is all-good [1]? Like everything else, it too was created by God, as it’s written, “I form the light and create darkness… I, the Lord, do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7); “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?” (Lamentations 3:38); and “are we to accept good from God and not trouble?” (Job 2:10). And as Ramchal puts it here, “Wrong isn’t a power onto itself God forbid, but rather something that He Himself created” (commentary to Petach 2).

So at what point was wrong created if it isn’t inherent to God Himself? At the creation of non-Godliness, when God allowed for the constriction of His being known as the Tzimtzum and then in what’s referred to as the Reshimu. We’ll delve into these arcane phenomena at length later on but that’s our point for now [2]. Ironically enough, though, the ultimate source of the creation of wrong and evil was God’s own desire to benevolent [3].

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Notes:

[1]       The Hebrew term “rah” denotes all of these. The term “evil” is overused and is often inappropriate as a translation as not all instances of rah are evil. There are some that are analogous to misdemeanors, others to felonies, and others to acts of out-and-out wickedness with many shades of gray in between. While Halacha certainly recognizes the difference, the idea of rah itself often isn’t spelled out when under discussion, hence our use of wrong, injustice, and evil depending on circumstances.

Ramchal discusses rah at great length in several Petachim beyond this first section including 30, 33, 37, 44, 45, 47, 53, 63, 83, and 108; also see Da’at Tevunot 96-133; Derech Hashem 1:2:5, 1:3:6, 1:5:7-9, 3:2:8, 4:1:3, 4:4:1,9, and 4:9:1; and in various other writings to be cited.

[2]       The Tzimtzum will be discussed in Petachim 24-25, 30; see Petachim 26-27 for the Reshimu (as well as Klallim Rishonim 5). Also see Adir Bamarom pp. 457-458.

[3]        As Ramchal worded it elsewhere, “Know that God is utterly good and wants to express utter benevolence; but know as well that the ultimate act of benevolence would be to have even wrongfulness revert to goodness“(Adir Bamarom p. 393) and to reveal His Yichud in the process.

(c) 2010 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”.

On the face of it, evil, injustice, wrongdoing and the like are all taken to be “necessary evils” if you will — unavoidable by-products of human free-will. After all, if I’m to be free to make ethical decisions, I have to be liable to make available bad ones.

Now, while evil and the like and its mechanism, the yetzer harah or sitra achra, are all despicable in the eyes of the tradition since they draw us away from God [1] and distract our attention from our life’s goal, they’re also recognized as being contributory on some level. For were it not for such inclinations we “wouldn’t build homes, marry, have children, conduct business” or the like (Breishit Rabbah 9); it’s acknowledged as oftentimes functioning as a servant of God who must conduct His “dirty business” so to speak (Zohar 2, 163a); and it’s accepted that at bottom it isn’t all-bad, since it’s animated by some sparks of holiness and Godliness or else it simply couldn’t exist (Eitz Chaim, Sha’ar HaKelallim 2, 19:3).

But Ramchal has a very different view of it. His point is that wrong actually serves to bolster God’s goals and will actually be transformed into good in the end.

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Notes:

[1] That’s one explanation for it being referred to as “a foreign (i.e., alternative) god” so to speak (Shabbat 105b).

(c) 2010 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”.

We’ll turn now to the ideas of right and wrong in relation to God’s Yichud, and to the eventual undoing of all wrong which we alluded to above, all of which have tremendous ethical and theological ramifications [1].

The big question is, how can God be said to hold absolute sway over everything, and to be the only being whose wishes can never be thwarted when there are countless instances of ungodliness and wrong that do indeed seem to thwart God’s wishes?

Ramchal’s response to that is that while they do seem to deny God’s sovereignty and Yichud they actually do not; in fact, they will be undone just to illustrate how absolute God’s reign actually is.

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Notes:

[1]       As we said above, there are three aspects of God’s Yichud: first, His being the only entity who simply must exist if anything else is to; second, His desire to have everything return to the pristine state of Yichud; and third, His being the sovereign Ruler who holds absolute sway over everything, and whom nothing and no one can thwart. We’ll be concentrating on this latter aspect now.

(c) 2010 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”.

In point of fact, we matter very much in the functioning of the universe [1]. At bottom, we were created as free agents — as Ramchal put it in Petach 1, God “created independent creatures possessing their own will” [2] — who were charged by God to do His bidding in this world, to execute His plans, and to experience His Yichud.

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Notes:

[1]       Mankind’s key role in creation was discussed widely: arguing for it, aside from the Kabbalists, was R’ Saadia Gaon in Emunot v’De’ot (end of Part 1 and beginning of Part 4); arguing against it include Ibn Ezra (near the beginning to his comments to Genesis) and at Exodus 23:20 (in his condensed commentary), Maimonides in The Guide for the Perplexed (3:12-13), and R’ Y. Aramah in Akeidat Yitzchak (Gate 5).

[2]       Ramchal discussed our free will in a number of other places in Klach. See for example Petachim 27 (p. 76), 30 (p. 93), and 81 (pp. 260, 262). Also see Da’at Tevunot 14, 158; Derech Hashem 1:3:1, 1:5:4; Ma’amar HaIkkurim, “BaHashgacha”; etc.

Also see Deuteronomy 30:15–19; Pirkei Avot 3:15; Emunot v’ Deot (Ch. 4); Chovot Halevovot (3:8), Moreh Nevuchim (3:17), Hilchot Teshuvah Ch. 5, and the statement that “All is in the hands of Heaven but the fear of Heaven” (Berachot 33b), which is to say that humankind is free to offer any sort of ethical response to whatever Heaven offers.

(c) 2010 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”.

So at bottom God created the cosmos en toto so that you and I can encounter His Being out and out.  It stands to reason that would be so, Ramchal asserts in Petach 3, since God is good and “good beings want to do good things”, by definition and to give of themselves [1]. Ramchal’s point then is that God’s beneficence is utterly, boldly altruistic on His part without any thought of Himself.

But there’s a snag. We’re not inclined to accept out-and-out benevolence, because of a uniquely human inability to accept a favor without being embarrassed by our benefactor’s largesse. As our sages put it, “One who eats what is not his is ashamed to look in his (benefactor’s) face” (J. T., Orlah 1:3) [2].

So in order to avoid this, we’re told, and to assure the fact that we wouldn’t be “ashamed to accept” his benevolence (Petach 4), God saw to it that humankind would “have a way of doing something to earn the good that they’d receive” (Ibid.). That way we’d enjoy what had come to be ours through our own efforts, and we’d thus be willing participants in the process He wants us to be [3].

In order to facilitate that effort God set out to create the system of good and evil (to allow for our good and bad choices), of reward and punishment (to affirm the seriousness of each one of our choices), and free will (to in fact allow us our own input).

With all that in place, God will indeed then be able to “express utter and complete benevolence in such a way that its recipients wouldn’t be ashamed to accept it” — since we would have earned it and would be willing to accept it.

All that goes to explain our raison d’être, as we’ll see.

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Notes:

[1]         See Da’at Tevunot 18 as well as Petach 3.

The idea that God is sure to do good by virtue of the fact that “good beings want to do good things”, is curious and almost seems to suggest that God is compelled by a kind of law of nature to that affect.

But as R’ Chaim Friedlander’s points out (see his note 2 on p. 4 of his edition of Da’at Tevunot), it’s absurd to suggest that God is compelled to do anything by nature. It’s best to say instead that He simply willed that such a rule be in place which He then chose to abide by (see Friedlander’s note 19 on p. 51 there as well).

Also see Shomer Emunim (1:53) for the same idea, though he doesn’t address the subject at hand per se there.

This solves another quandary: the idea that God created the world to offer His largesse seems to suggest that creating beings somehow fulfills God, which is of course absurd. But the point once again is that God simply willed there to be an apparent “need” for the world to exist.

Also see Leshem, Chelek HaBiurim, Drushei Iggulim v’Yosher 1:1.

[2]       This notion, known as Nahama D’kisufa (“The Bread of Shame”), which has taken on a life of its own in contemporary Kabbalistic and Chassidic thought and has assumed the role of a near principle of the Faith, is also cited in Tosephot to Kiddushin 36b, “Kawl Mitzvah”; R’ Yoseph Karo’s Maggid Maisharim (Breishit, “Ohr Layom Shabbat 14 Tevet”); R’ Menachem Azariah De Fano’s Yonat Elim(beginning); and the anonymous Orchot Tzaddikim’s Sha’ar HaBusha. But its sure standing in contemporary thought is one of Ramchal’s many unique contributions to our understanding of traditional Jewish philosophy. Also see Derech Hashem 1:2:2

See R’ Shriki’s note 7* on pp. 13-14 of his edition of Da’at Tevunot, and his  note 29 on pp. 16-17 of his edition of Derech Hashem where he raises the question as to why God couldn’t have just undone this anomaly.

[3]       Recall that Ramchal’s point has been that everything created — every single item, person, phenomenon, and process — is part of a great and splendid “device”, if you will, whose sole aim is to serve as a recipient of God’s largesse. The implications of that are of course quite stunning, breathtaking, even undoing, since it implies that nothing has a life or raison d’être of its own so much as a role to play in the revelation of God’s sovereignty. Yet we’ve also been taught that we have free will, which would clearly affirm our own personal reality as well as our importance in the makeup of the universe. So what role do we play in the end? Significantly, since it’s we alone who allow for the revelation of God’s Yichud in the world we clearly matter infinitely much.

(c) 2010 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”.

Ramchal offers us this astounding remark in the Mishna of Petach 3: The world was ultimately created so that God could be beneficent … (and) to bestow utmost goodness upon the universe. Contained in that statement are answers to two of the most vexing existential questions of all: why God created the universe, and (by extension) what the meaning of our lives is. Let’s tread lightly into those eternal topics now [1].

While Ramchal discusses God’s reason for having created the universe in a number of places, his point here is that it comes down to the fact that God did so in order to bestow goodness upon it [2]. Elsewhere though he famously offered that we were created to “delight in God and enjoy the radiance of His Divine presence” (Messilat Yesharim Ch. 1) [3]. But what that seeming contradiction speaks to is the fact that while God does indeed want us to experience goodness, nonetheless since the greatest goodness we can experience in fact is His own presence, then our having that experience is His ultimate goal for us [4].

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Notes:

[1]       In fact, Ramchal adjured us (in the work that serves as an introduction to Klach in some editions, which is otherwise known as Derech Eitz Chaim) to make a point of setting aside time to ask ourselves who we are at bottom, why we were placed in the world, what God requires of us, and what will be our end.

[2]       See Derech Hashem 1:2 (beginning); Sod HaYichud (Ginzei Ramchal p. 265); Da’at Tevunot 18; Ma’amar HaChochma, “V’omek Shel HaInyan”; and Iggerot Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at, “Yediah Sheniya”.

God’s overarching benevolence was discussed in earlier classical works: see for example Emunot v’De’ot (Introduction to Section 3), Ohr Hashem 2:6:5 (and elsewhere there), Sefer HaYashar (1), and Eitz Chaim, Sha’ar HaKlallim (beg.).

[3]       He actually wrote there that indeed “we were created to delight in God and enjoy the radiance of His Divine presence”, but he added that “the means to bring you to this goal are the mitzvot that God has commanded”, and thus “the main purpose of our having been placed in this world was to observe the mitzvot, to serve God, and to withstand spiritual trials” (Ibid.). The point of the matter, though, is that while we were placed in this world in order “to observe the mitzvot, to serve God, and to withstand spiritual trials”, since all of that will contribute to our earning a place in the World to Come, in truth our ultimate reason for having been created was to “delight in God and enjoy the radiance of His Divine presence”, and that can only be experienced in the World to Come.

That distinction also explains his statement elsewhere that “the universe was created so that “God’s Yichud can manifest itself before everyone” (Da’at Tevunot 34, 36, 44,48, 116, 158; also see Petach 4 where he writes that The Infinite One wanted to express utter and complete benevolence … so He set out to (eventually) reveal His Yichud), which we’ll discuss in detail below. The point is that God wants us to delight in His presence in the World to Come. See the next note as well.

[4]          See Petach 4 (p. 13) and Derech Hashem 1:2:1.

(c) 2010 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”.