Wrong, Evil, and Injustice (Part 3)

Ramchal uses the same bilateral depiction for the source of rah, which is once again a product of the Tzimtzum, our subject at hand. On the one hand, rah is rooted in and a means of accomplishing God’s ultimate end, while on the other it’s rooted in a division in the upper realms.

As he says in Adir Bamarom (p. 393), God wants to “express utter beneficence”, and the greatest proof of that is the fact “even rah itself is to be turned back to goodness”. That’s to say that rah is not intrinsic to the world, as some posit, but rather a God-created phenomenon that serves as a tool to facilitate God’s goal of utter beneficence [1].

But there’s the other side of the story, too, as we’ll see.

Note:

[1]       Also see Ma’amar Haraotav (as found in Ginzei Ramchal p. 247) and Adir Bamarom pp. 393, 397.

(c) 2011 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”.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *