{"id":1325,"date":"2012-08-06T12:14:16","date_gmt":"2012-08-06T16:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=1325"},"modified":"2012-08-06T12:14:16","modified_gmt":"2012-08-06T16:14:16","slug":"all-is-not-right-with-the-world-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2012\/08\/06\/all-is-not-right-with-the-world-4\/","title":{"rendered":"All is not right with the world (4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maimonides begins his discussion of the nature of rah<\/em> with the idea that our very physicality acts as a partition between ourselves and any ability we might have to perceive abstract notions (like \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cevil\u201d, in this instance), and most especially of perceiving God\u2019s being. That\u2019s why, he says, the prophets spoke of God being surrounded by obfuscating vapors, darkness, and thick clouds, as when it was said that \u201cclouds and darkness are around and about Him\u201d (Psalms 92:2), or when it was said that God \u201cmade darkness His secret (hiding) place\u201d (Ibid 38:12) [1]. The implications is that God\u2019s ways in this world are likewise covered-over and out of sight, the most significant being His relationship to rah<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Then he offers this opinion: that rah<\/em> unto itself doesn\u2019t exist — so-called rah<\/em> 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 \u201cbad\u201d because all of these things are adversities and undesirables, he asserts. In other words, such things are \u201cbad\u201d in our eyes, but they aren\u2019t intrinsically or necessarily so (after all, isn\u2019t death sometimes a relief to the anguished; and don\u2019t poverty, illness, and ignorance oftentimes offer unexpected moral and spiritual benefits, notwithstanding their vexations?).<\/p>\n

That being so, he asserts that God isn\u2019t responsible for rah <\/em>per se — He created existence, to be sure, where instances of \u201cbad\u201d exist, but He didn\u2019t go out of His way, if one could say as much, as to create bad. Everything there is exists, as he words it, \u201cfor 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\u201d [2]. And if relatively \u201cbad\u201d things occur in the process, he implies, well, then so be it.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cthe many \u2018wrongs\u2019 that people experience are due to their own faults\u2026 (That\u2019s to say that) we suffer from the \u2018evils\u2019 we inflict upon ourselves with our free will, and we ascribe them to God\u201d! And he suggests that there are thus three overall sorts of rah<\/em> in the human experience: the kind that\u2019s 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].<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Moreh<\/em> Nevuchim<\/em> 3: 9.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ibid. Ch. 10.<\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ch. 11.<\/p>\n

[4]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ch. 12.<\/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":"

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 \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cevil\u201d, in this instance), and … 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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1325","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\/1325","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=1325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}