Ramchal declares that the repairing of the final degree depends on human input, for humanity is meant to strengthen the power of holiness. Once that’s accomplished there’ll no longer be wrong, and everything will serve only to manifest the glory of the Creator… Everything will revert to helping to perfect the “basic foundation” that was established so that all of creation would be of one accord … which will lead to the revelation of God’s sovereignty…. Light will complete its entry into all the vessels … and everything will be in a state of utter repair (Petach 48). And he declares that the truly wrongful was always mean to revert to goodness through the repairs carried out by humankind (Petach 49).
Finally, he lays out some more details in his comments to Petach 48. He offers that “God’s Supreme Will originally desired that He Himself would begin (the process of universal rectification) while allowing man to complete it. Thus, when humanity’s work will be finished that will complete the entire process, and a state of (utter) repair will reign”. For, “the repair of this last level will depend on the actions of humanity… For this is in fact what the Supreme Mind allowed for in order to provide for the possibility of reward and punishment. For (while God Himself) separated rah from the supernal Sephirot He nevertheless left its complete removal in the hands of humanity”.
As such, “this is the difference between the repair brought on by the hands of Heaven and the one brought on by humanity: everything that involved an innovation (i.e., an instance of the creation of something out of nothing) could only be brought about by the hands of Heaven, but what simply involved bolstering the repair and making it permanent was to be accomplished by humanity”.
(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”.
Pingback: Back-Peddling a Bit « Ramchal