Ramchal

He spoke a great deal about rah in Da’at Tevunot (96-133), where he touches upon rah and man’s place in undoing it; on the fact that rah was a created, i.e., un-Godly, phenomenon; on the fact that while He created it God doesn’t fully “feed” (i.e., have His emanations freely flow upon) rah — only enough to allow for its existence; on its being a symptom of God’s hidden-ness and withdrawal, and a result of His not yet revealing His Yichud; on its eventual undoing; on its role in the workings of the Afterlife as well as reward and punishment; on Adam and Eve’s role in its role in the universe; on rah’s effects on the world and on humankind; on the Jewish Nation’s specific relation to rah as well as the role of the righteous; and much more.

He spoke of rah in more arcane terms in Sefer Kina’ot Adonai Tziva’ot in terms of exile and redemption; he reintroduced the idea of its being undone in Peirush La’Arimit Yadi b’Tzalutin; and he expanded upon these and related themes here, in Klach Pitchei Chochma.

But all of this will take us far too afield. So we’ll now expand upon the contents of this section of Klach itself.

(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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He goes on from there to describe the various elements of the sitra achra, including the fact that it has four levels, the highest of which is a very weak and nearly-good degree of rah, and the other three of which are deeper and darker degrees of rah — all in contradistinction to the four holy worlds of Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiyah.

As such there are two mirror-opposite but otherwise analogous systems.  And when some wrongdoers saw these two systems “they assumed there were two domains, God forbid”, since “they saw an unclean tree (i.e., system or configuration) spreading out like the holy tree, and they thought it had a lord just as the former does, God forbid. All instances of idol worship stemmed from that (misperception).”

This alludes to the idea we’d covered earlier on and which we’ll touch upon again here about the revelation of God’s Yichud undoing all rah. The implication here is that while there are in fact two systems — right and wrong — which might lead one to think that God somehow shares His sovereignty with a lord of wrong, that’s simply not so. And in fact we’ll see just how wrong an assumption that is when God’s utter sovereignty is made manifest (“when rah is subsumed into its source” as Ramchal puts it here), and it then becomes clear that rah is also under God’s control and likewise plays a part in His intentions for the universe.

(c) 2012 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”.

He then offers this fascinating, fully-packed, and very Ramchal-like statement in Adir Bamarom (pp. 195-197) that illustrates among other things the process of the formation of rah, defines the “otherness” of the Other Side (sitra achra), and more — and all without mention of the Ari’s symbols or system per se. Let’s see.

The Other Side, he says, “derives from a holy source” indeed which nonetheless went through the following process. “One level after the other (of light) descended downward, each one then became more and more thick (i.e., became less and less light-like) and it continued to descend down to the lowest level that lights could reach…. Ultimately (it reached a stage where) the Tzimtzum (effect) became so strong … that an exceedingly hard (i.e., un-light-like) subdivision was produced which is the sitra achra”.

That is, the sitra achra is the final product of the downward and more and more attenuating movement of the light away from its highest source. Notice that there’s no mention of the first three lights, or Sephirot, versus the remaining seven, of kings or worlds being destroyed in the process, etc. There’s simply a broad laying out of a process of attenuation and descent to its end.

What is the “side” that the sitra achra is “other” than? As he goes on to say, this subdivision does something completely different from what the holiness it derives from does: “while holiness wants to be beneficent, this subdivision was specifically created to withhold”. So if holiness is on one side of the scale of generosity and selflessness, the sitra achra is the other side of that scale and expresses meanness and selfishness.

(c) 2012 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”.

We’ll now touch somewhat on what Ramchal said on rah in general in other works then we’ll turn to what he says here, in this section of Klach. Understand that we spoke a lot about this in 1:5 (see 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) so we’ll only offer a fairly straight-forward presentation of sources here.

To begin with, we find that he clearly indicates that rah has a lofty source. “Since God’s wisdom decreed that both right and wrong would exist in the world”, he says, it’s clear then that “this phenomenon (i.e., both right and wrong) has to originate in the Root Sources (i.e., the Sephirot and Partzufim)” (Derech Hashem 1:5:7).

(c) 2012 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”.

Now, there’s a Talmudic statement that speaks to a lot of this, featuring R’ Akiva and as found in T. B. Berachot 60b.

“Once Rabbi Akiva was traveling with a donkey, a rooster, and a candle, and when night came he tried to find lodging in a nearby village but was turned away. Although he was forced to spend the night in the field, he didn’t lament his fate. Instead he said, ‘Everything that the All-Merciful does is for the good’”. We’re expected to be perplexed by R’ Akiva’s disbelief in the reality of rah, but we’ll see how right he was.

“A wind came and blew out his candle, a cat ate his rooster, and a lion came and ate his donkey (while they all lay in the field), and again Rabbi Akiva’s reaction was that ‘Everything that the All-Merciful does is for the good’”. Again we’re perplexed.

“That night a band of marauders came and took the entire town captive while Rabbi Akiva was asleep in the field, and he was thus spared. When R’ Akiva realized what happened he said (later on to his disciples, or see below), ‘Didn’t I tell you that everything that the All-Merciful does is for the good’?” The point is that not only did R’ Akiva avoid death by having slept in the field, though that seemed to be an instance of rah at first, but as Rashi explains it, it’s also true that if the candle, rooster, or donkey wouldn’t have been done away with that the band of marauders would have seen or heard them, and would have captured Rabbi Akiva, too.

Hence, the message here is that while it seemed to be rah that R’ Akiva was forced to spend the night in the field and couldn’t get a room at the local inn and that his things were taken from him, all that proved not to be rah at all, but rather quite for good as far as he was concerned, since his life was saved. And we’re to surmise that in fact everything is for the good, nothing is rah, and that everything that God has come about in the world is for the ultimate good even when we don’t realize it.

Of course, one could point out that rah did apparently happen to the townspeople who were captured by marauders, as well as to R’ Akiva’s donkey and rooster, but perhaps they have their own tales to tell that would underscore R’ Akiva’s which we’ll never know, after which R’ Akiva would have said to them, “See, didn’t I tell you that everything that the All-Merciful does is for the good?”.

(c) 2012 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”.

Maimonides begins his discussion of the nature of rah with the idea that our very physicality acts as a partition between ourselves and any ability we might have to perceive abstract notions (like “good” or “evil”, in this instance), and most especially of perceiving God’s being. That’s why, he says, the prophets spoke of God being surrounded by obfuscating vapors, darkness, and thick clouds, as when it was said that “clouds and darkness are around and about Him” (Psalms 92:2), or when it was said that God “made darkness His secret (hiding) place” (Ibid 38:12) [1]. The implications is that God’s ways in this world are likewise covered-over and out of sight, the most significant being His relationship to rah.

Then he offers this opinion: that rah unto itself doesn’t exist — so-called rah can only be said to exist in relation to certain specific things and phenomena, rather than on its own. We only term death, poverty, illness, and ignorance “bad” because all of these things are adversities and undesirables, he asserts. In other words, such things are “bad” in our eyes, but they aren’t intrinsically or necessarily so (after all, isn’t death sometimes a relief to the anguished; and don’t poverty, illness, and ignorance oftentimes offer unexpected moral and spiritual benefits, notwithstanding their vexations?).

That being so, he asserts that God isn’t responsible for rah per se — He created existence, to be sure, where instances of “bad” exist, but He didn’t go out of His way, if one could say as much, as to create bad. Everything there is exists, as he words it, “for the good, for the permanence of the universe, for the continuance of the order of things, and so that one thing will depart and another to succeed it” [2]. And if relatively “bad” things occur in the process, he implies, well, then so be it.

Most wrongs and instances of injustice are things brought on by humankind itself, because of its ignorance about the truth of things [3] which leads to all kinds of disgraceful actions and traits. But he makes the point that there are far more instances of goodness in life than not, and that “the many ‘wrongs’ that people experience are due to their own faults… (That’s to say that) we suffer from the ‘evils’ we inflict upon ourselves with our free will, and we ascribe them to God”! And he suggests that there are thus three overall sorts of rah in the human experience: the kind that’s inherent to our being physical beings and thus subject to all sorts of natural consequences of that; and the kind that we inflict upon each other or ourselves [4].

Notes:

[1]       Moreh Nevuchim 3: 9.

[2]       Ibid. Ch. 10.

[3]       Ch. 11.

[4]       Ch. 12.

(c) 2012 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”.

But, where and when did rah originate? Well, other than Ar’i who based himself on the Zohar, few ventured to say [1]. In fact, Maimonides even denies that rah exists — that’s to say, he refutes the idea that there is a separate created entity called rah which God went about creating at a certain point.

We’ll explore that, then some of Ramchal’s ideas about this, too, next.

Notes:

[1]       R’ Yitzchak Ben Yaakov HaCohen of the 13^th Century did speculate about it and based his ideas on 12^th Century R’ Eliezer of Worms’ Chochmat HaNephesh. But that is beyond the speculations of this work.

(c) 2012 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”.

The tradition owns up to the fact of the inscrutability of wrong [1], yet it counsels us to accept the fact that all is as it must be and is for the good [2]. And let it not be forgotten that God Himself adjudged all of creation to be very good at bottom [3].

Notes:

[1]       See God’s statement: “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (Ex. 33:19) as cited in Berachot 7a.

[2]       We’re advised to accustom ourselves to say, “All that the Merciful One does is for the good” (Berachot 60b).

[3]       “And God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

(c) 2012 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”.

Our subject is termed rah in Hebrew. While it’s often and incongruously translated as “wicked” or “evil”, we choose to translate it as “wrong” or “injustice”, or a combination of the two, as that seems to be the subject at hand [1].

In fact, there are very many other meanings of the term, which include “inferior” or “worthless”, as in a bad computer for example; “dangerous”, or “malignant”, as in a bad illness; “noxious”, “displeasing”, and “repugnant”, as in a bad odor; etc.

Very notably in the context of the Breaking of the Vessels — and given that it might very well be one of Ari”s sources for the concept — r’ah,its hitpoel (reflexive) form translates as “broken”, “crushed”, or “shattered” [2].

In any event, the tradition very clearly attributes its creation to God alone [3], and it’s usefulness and worth is certainly not denied [4].

Notes:

[1]       And also because not every instance of rah is inherently and intentionally wicked or bad, as we’ll soon point out.

[2]       See Daniel 2:40; also see Kiddushin 39b, Ta’anit 20b, etc.

[3]       See Isaiah 45:7, Amos 3:6, lamentations 3:38, Baba Batra 16a.

[4]       See Breishit Raba 9:7.

(c) 2012 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”.

Here’s what Ramchal offers in Iggerot Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at. He makes the point there that “the Din (i.e., harsh judgment and retribution) that was (first) revealed in the Trace hadn’t yet reached the (less sublime) stage where it could (actually) be referred to as the source of the other side until it came to form the vessels of Nikkudim … and to (bring about) the Breaking (of the Vessels)” (37). Let’s see what this means.

He’s touching on the idea here of the source of wrong and injustice in the upper realms. His contention is that while wrong and injustice — the products of other side — are ultimately rooted in the harsh judgment and retribution allowed for by the formation of the Trace, still and all, the Trace is so exalted a level that one wonders how anything so unworthy as wrong and injustice could ever be produced there. So he offers that while wrong and injustice are indeed ultimately rooted in the Trace, nonetheless, wrong and injustice couldn’t really come about until the Breaking of the Vessels came forth, which is a related but far less lofty stage than the Trace.

We’ve now touched somewhat on the fulsome subject of the root and role of wrong and injustice in the world, which Ramchal will expand upon in this section. Let’s step back, though, and see what other traditional sources say about that, as well as what Ramchal himself says about it in other works.

(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org

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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”.