Monthly Archives: November 2011

The complex relationship between the three elements is expanded upon by the statement in Petach 28 that the line of Ein Sof which entered into the trace is sequestered within it on every level, and is said to govern it the way the soul governs the body (as Ramchal pointed out in his comments to Petach 27). But it also stands outside of the trace and encompasses it, and is said to incorporate its abilities and to observe it from every angle and to thus govern it from within and without.

And Ramchal also offers there in explanation the statement that “The concealment of the line within the trace touches upon “the two sorts of Divine governance we’d discussed earlier: governance according to (the system of) good and evil, and governance according to (the system of) Divine sovereignty”. It implies that the mode of governance according to Divine sovereignty, represented by the line, “is concealed within the manifest mode of governance according to (the system of) good and evil”, represented by the trace. Thus we learn that God’s own “encompassing light is the cause of … the trace. That encompassing light represents the ultimate revelation while the … trace encompasses the root of man’s (Divine) service thanks to which we are able to attain the revelation (of God’s light), which is the (ultimate) reward.”

That implies, of course, that the ultimate revelation of God’s sovereignty will “win the day”, if you will, in the end and will supersede the world of relativity and wrongfulness that is our own, as we indicated.

But Ramchal then adds another element to all this in Petach 28: the fact that all of this — i.e., the line’s interactions with the trace– is (done) only in such a way that the line accommodates itself to the makeup and needs of the trace and everything connected with it.

We’ll touch on that next.

(c) 2011 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”.

Ramchal explains some of this dynamic in his comments to Petach 27 where he offers, among other things, that “the Ein Sof has the unique property of possessing ultimate perfection, as a result of which He is entirely good…. Wrong can only exist when His perfection is concealed, and as soon as His perfection is revealed, wrong ceases to exist…. In order to (eventually) reveal His sovereignty in the clearest way, He (first) concealed it and instituted a way of imperfection so as to create and govern imperfect creatures. This is the (essence of the) trace.

“This trace came into being through the concealment of (utter) perfection, and it has many deficiencies and imperfections rooted in it. The truth is that the intention behind these deficiencies is thereby to make it possible for God’s creatures to exist on different, relative levels, and to draw closer to perfection gradually, level by level.

“Reward and punishment indicate a lack of perfection, for in a state of utter perfection, everything would be good. With the concealment of perfection, God’s governance itself hangs in the balance (as it must be decided) whether to confer goodness or its opposite, depending on humanity’s deeds in the lower world. This phenomenon is rooted in the trace, which contains everything connected with reward on the one hand and punishment on the other …. But things could have gone along those lines forever, with the righteous receiving their reward and the wrongful being punished … were it not for the fact that the trace is governed by the Ein Sof.”

(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”.