Ramchal

Ramchal doesn’t discuss Elijah at any length in his works but we will at this juncture since he’s cited at the end of the verses of Malachi we quoted above, and since he’ll play an important role in the onset of the Messianic Era.

The clearest exposition of Elijah’s role in the end of days is presented at the end of Tractate Eduyot (8:7). We’re told there that “Elijah will come to (the world in the Messianic Era in order to) solve disputations (among the sages’ redactions) … to bring peace to the world, … and to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers”, which is to say that he will establish peace and harmony in the world so that God can establish the same throughout the universe by manifesting His Yichud.

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Ramchal himself agrees that the Great Day of Judgment will occur after the resurrection of the dead, and that everyone will then be judged. Those deserving of punishment (aside what they’d experienced of it in Gehenom) will suffer it then and will be utterly and eternally undone, while those deserving of reward (aside what they’d experienced of it in the Garden of Eden) will enjoy it then [1].

Everything that had ever occurred in the course of the six millennia of creation will be judged then individually. Then the seventh millennium will begin, when everything will change its form [2]. And then a great rectification will come about on par with what would have occurred had Adam and Eve not erred: all will be pure, all wrongfulness will be undone, and a new and unfathomable world will come about for all of eternity [3].

And as to Elijah’s role in all of this, as referred to in the quote from Malachi above…

Notes:

[1]       Ma’amar HaIkkurim.

[2]       Adir Bamarom p. 52.

[3]       Ma’amar HaGeulah.

(c) 2014 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
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There are three “days of judgment” in fact: Rosh Hashanah, when you’re judged for the year to come; the day of your death, when you’re judged for the afterlife; and finally, when you’re to be judged for eternity [1] (which is why it’s termed the “Great” or ultimate Day of Judgment).

The Great Day of Judgment will occur after the resurrection of the dead [2], it will take place in Emek Yehosaphat [3], and it will be a “dark and stunning day — a fearsome and frightening” [4] and “horrific” [5] day.

It’s generally held that everyone’s right to resurrected in fact will be judged then, as well as the ultimate fate of each one’s body and soul [6]. But Ar’i contends that only non-Jews are to be judged then [7].

Two things will serve you especially well in the Great Day of Judgment: your having observed the Shabbat [8] and learned Torah [9].

And after the Great Day of Judgment will have come about God’s presence will become manifest to all [10], and it will become clear that everything that had occurred was purposeful and perfectly and flawlessly set in order [11].

Notes:

[1]       Ramban’s Sha’ar HaGemul.

[2]       Ibid.

[3]       Midrash v’Yoshaiah.

[4]       Otzar HaMidrashim.

[5]       Midrash Tanchuma, Pekudai.

[6]       Ramban’s Sha’ar HaGemul.

[7]       See Nephesh HaChaim 1:17, implying that they alone would need to be judged whereas the body and souls of all Jews will automatically merit The World to Come.

[8]       Mechilta, Beshalach.

[9]       Midrash Daniel.

[10]     Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim.

[11]     Otzar HaMidrashim.

(c) 2014 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.

Apropos to the sort of judgment spoke of until now in this section, Petach 79 offers that at the time of the Great Day of Judgment all the deeds of the world will be arranged and evaluated in the order in which they were carried out from the beginning of the universe until its end.

So we’ll first address the traditional view of the Great Day of Judgment and point to Ramchal’s remarks about it elsewhere.

(c) 2014 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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The Petach concludes with the remark that at the end of the entire cycle i.e., at the end of time as we know it, there will be a complete Tikkun that would be based on everything that was done, good or — God forbid — bad.

That alludes to what was said above [1] to the effect that right and wrong will continue to exist in the course of history — as represented by the earlier statement in this Petach that nothing either good, bad, or a combination of the two is even forgotten before His Throne of Glory — until God’s will to bestow goodness will hold sway, His Yichud will be revealed, and everything will achieve perfection.

The thing to recall is that all of this plays itself out and functions in the Attik realm, the subject of the previous section which is being expanded upon in this section.

Note:

[1] See Petach 30.

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Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.

Let’s back up a bit and consider something that Ramchal offers in his own comments to our Petach. He cites the Trace and the Line spoken of at length above [1]. Let’s examine that in light of what we learned above, in Petach 78.

We’re told above in Petach 27 that everything that was to exist in the world has its roots in the Trace, which is a shadow of God’s presence [2]. That is, God has left a trace of His being in the world when He (apparently) left it, with the onset of the Tzimtzum process, and everything here is rooted in that trace of His being.

Petach 37 above goes on to say that the interaction on God’s part with the Trace is termed His having extended a single “line” … into the “emptiness” brought on by the Tzimtzum. That is, the Line represents God’s re-entering the empty space created by the Tzimtzum and His interacting with the world at large.

That having been said we see that Petach 78’s statement that each deed’s outcome continues to exist even when the deed itself is gone suddenly has a whole other import. And the idea there that when a flaw has been repaired, the trace (!) of the original flaw doesn’t disappear, etc. now implies this. A trace of the past always remains behind everything we do, to be sure, but we’re to know that given that that trace itself interacts with God’s being, it’s thus never overlooked or considered worthless. And so rather than seeming to be a nefarious remark to the effect that there’s no hope and that nothing but nothing is ever forgotten, the truth is that everything is indeed remembered and remains — that’s because everything matters in God’s interactions with the universe.

Notes:

[1] See Section 6 above.

[2] Da’at Tevunot 48.

(c) 2014 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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The next statement to the affect that that’s so because nothing is even forgotten before His Throne of Glory is self-evident. But the Petach’s concluding remarks — that at the end of the entire cycle there will be an utter repair that would be based on everything that was done, good or God forbid bad — call for some explanation as they’re rather esoteric.

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Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence” and “Ramchal”.

It comes to this, and it’s based on reward and punishment, and on God’s ultimate agenda.

As has been indicated in very many places as well as in many of Ramchal’s own works, we’ve each been granted the capacity — and responsibility — to rectify things, the entire universe included. And the means given us to do that is the mitzvah system. Follow that system and thus help rectify the universe, and you’re to be eternally rewarded; breach it and you’re to be penalized. It stands to reason then that God judges each one of our deeds in the light of what we’d contributed to or denied from universal rectification.

But as Ramchal indicates, His judgment is based on the whole of one’s deeds — on past, present, and future ones, and on the past, present, and future of each specific deed. Here’s how he explains that in another work, using much of the same terminology that he uses in our Petach.

God judges each deed, but “there’s no comparison between a rectified deed that follows (on the heels of) a blemished one, or a rectified deed that follows (on the heels of) one or even two other blemished acts, etc.” and an ordinary rectified or blemished deed. Indeed, “God observes all (of that) and takes it all into account when He judges us for reward or punishment [1].

So, the statement in our Petach to the effect that each deed’s outcome continues to exist even when the deed itself is gone refers to each deed’s past, present, and future components being a part of its makeup and contributing to the judgments made upon it. And the remark that a flaw that has been repaired, still exhibits the trace of the original flaw and it doesn’t disappear — it remains a flaw that has nonetheless been repaired, etc., is identical to the statement that “a rectified act that follows (on the heels of) a blemished one, or a rectified act that follows (on the heels of) one or even two other blemished acts, etc.”, in that its past, present, and future all matter at one and the same time when being judged.

At bottom his point is that nothing is solid or fixed: everything is an ever-spinning brew of past, present, and future, of change, and of progression and regression, and will judged accordingly. That is, God observes and judges us much the way we’re to observe and judge a sweet, shiny red tomato’s present makeup by taking into account its hard dull green immature past, as well as its decimated, mulch brown future as well.

Footnotes:

1. Klallim Rishonim 34 (towards the end). Also see Da’at Tevunot 170 and Ma’amar HaChochma (on Zichronot in the Mussaf of Rosh Hashanah).

(c) 2014 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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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”.