{"id":135,"date":"2010-11-04T17:35:31","date_gmt":"2010-11-04T21:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=135"},"modified":"2010-11-04T17:35:31","modified_gmt":"2010-11-04T21:35:31","slug":"why-study-kabbalah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2010\/11\/04\/why-study-kabbalah\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Study Kabbalah?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlike the rest of the work, this first part of\u00a0Klach Pitchei Chochma<\/em> hardly touches upon Kabbalah\u00a0per se,<\/em> but rather offers a rationale for the book as a whole.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nonetheless the first thing open for discussion in this Kabbalistic work is why we should study Kabbalah in the first place. After all, many insist we shouldn\u2019t and others suggest it isn\u2019t worth the effort which could be better spent on more \u201cuseful\u201d things like Talmud, Halacha, etc. Ramchal has his own insights into that as we would expect, but let\u2019s see what others who had preceded him offered.<\/p>\n

Without explaining the personal or general advantages to be had from studying Kabbalah, some say we simply must<\/em> if we\u2019re able to (See Tikkunei<\/em> Zohar<\/em> 43 and refer to Kissei<\/em> Melech<\/em> there; Vilna Gaon\u2019s Even<\/em> Shleima<\/em> 5:24 and his comments to Tikkunei<\/em> Zohar<\/em> p. 81b; Shulchan<\/em> Aruch<\/em> HaRav<\/em>, Hilchot<\/em> Talmud<\/em> Torah<\/em> 4; Sefer<\/em> HaTanya<\/em>, Kuntress<\/em> Acharon<\/em> p. 156b; Arizal\u2019s Sha\u2019ar<\/em> HaMitvot<\/em>, Introduction; etc.)<\/p>\n

Others do explain the advantages to its study, on the other hand. Some say learning it solidifies one\u2019s faith in God, since it\u2019s so deep and wondrous (R\u2019 Yaakov Tzemach\u2019s Introduction to Ranu<\/em> Yisrael<\/em>, as cited at the beginning of the standard text of Eitz<\/em> Chaim<\/em>) and allows one to be sure of the wisdom of God\u2019s ways (Sur<\/em> Marah<\/em> v\u2019Assei<\/em> Tov 138<\/em>); being proficient in its study enables one to dedicate even his more profane acts more effectively to God (Sur<\/em> Marah<\/em> v\u2019Assei<\/em> Tov<\/em> 140); and R\u2019 Moshe Cordovero cites nineteen profound reasons, running the gamut from be able to achieve Devekut to being able to pray more efficaciously and much more (Ohr Ne\u2019erav 4-5).<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see what Ramchal proposes next.<\/p>\n

(c) 2010 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":"

Unlike the rest of the work, this first part of\u00a0Klach Pitchei Chochma hardly touches upon Kabbalah\u00a0per se, but rather offers a rationale for the book as a whole. Nonetheless the first thing open for discussion in this Kabbalistic work is … 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-135","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\/135","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=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}