{"id":1247,"date":"2012-06-06T11:44:16","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T15:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=1247"},"modified":"2012-06-06T11:44:16","modified_gmt":"2012-06-06T15:44:16","slug":"the-rationale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2012\/06\/06\/the-rationale\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rationale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ma\u2019amar<\/em> HaVichuach<\/em> is written in the form of a discussion of the merits of Kabbalah-study between a Kabbalist and a philosopher. Not surprisingly given that Ramchal is the book\u2019s author, the Kabbalist wins the argument and offers several cogent justifications for studying it in the process.<\/p>\n

His rationale is that we need to study it in order to see the truth of things. For, \u201cpeople \u2026 think that the world merely follows the laws of nature\u201d, he posits, \u201cwhich they can discern with their own eyes\u201d (p. 30) or with the appropriate tools. But that\u2019s not so, as at Mount Sinai \u201cGod showed people all of existence\u201d in a great burst of revelation, and He let them know \u201cwhat existence is (actually) based on\u201d — the fact \u201cthat He alone reigns, and that no one (and nothing) else does\u201d (Ibid.).<\/p>\n

The Kabbalist goes on to expand on the revelation that occurred there and which continued in the course of our travels in the desert on the way to The Land of Israel, and he then contrasts that with the progressive lessening of revelation and insight since in the course of our long exile. He then offers that we can capture a large part of that series of revelation by studying Kabbalah, which offers insights into the truth of things about God and the world that other studies simply do not. And he ties that in with his vision of humankind\u2019s role in this world, which is to better things and \u201cto rectify himself and his environment\u201d, which is to say, the entire universe along the way (p. 35). In other words, by studying Kabbalah we regain the primal wisdom we\u2019d once enjoyed, and we can apply that knowledge to our charge in life.<\/p>\n

He then makes the argument that this vision of things has been lost to us, though, and that the study of Kabbalah, which was to have been a solution to all things vital and existential, has proven to be a roadblock. But that\u2019s not because of any fault in the subject itself so much as because those few who do study it only enjoy an \u201cawareness of the names of concepts we\u2019d need to remember\u201d if we\u2019re to study it seriously, and because their rote studies are \u201clike an index to (various) books (one would need to know)\u2026 that isn\u2019t (rooted in) knowledge so much as \u2026 (in the) recitation of texts\u201d (p. 36), arcane terms, and vague notions of Divinity.<\/p>\n

Ramchal\u2019s sees his task in Ma\u2019amar<\/em> HaVichuach<\/em> then as providing the reader with those same concepts while explaining what they\u2019re all about<\/em>, which is the whole point.<\/p>\n

(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman<\/p>\n

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org<\/a><\/p>\n

———————————————————-<\/p>\n

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here<\/a> at a discount.<\/p>\n

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here<\/a> at a discount as well.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).<\/p>\n

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence<\/a>\u201d and \u201cRamchal<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ma\u2019amar HaVichuach is written in the form of a discussion of the merits of Kabbalah-study between a Kabbalist and a philosopher. Not surprisingly given that Ramchal is the book\u2019s author, the Kabbalist wins the argument and offers several cogent justifications … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}