After introducing the creation of rah in the world of Nikkudim, Ramchal underscores the fact that a form of repair occurred there afterwards. Yet the repair was only partial and only to the degree that would allow human actions to bring on the sequence of flaw and repair to continue in the universe in the course of the 6,000 years of Divine service (which we’ll discuss below). Nonetheless, in the end everything will be utterly repaired, as a consequence of which there’ll no longer be any flaws (Petach 37).
This addresses the idea we’d cited before about rah being turned to good and thus playing a role in the revelation of God’s Yichud, His utter sovereignty. Ramchal expands on that in his comments to the Petachim that comprise this section.
As we offered elsewhere though, Ramchal spoke about this in his comments to Petach 27 where he said that “rah can only exist when God’s 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 (thus first) concealed it and instituted a way of imperfection so as to create and govern imperfect creatures”; “the intention behind these deficiencies is … to make it possible for God’s creatures to exist on different, relative (moral and spiritual) levels, and to draw closer to perfection gradually, level by level”; and “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”.
Let’s see what he adds in this section.
(c) 2012 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”.