{"id":1359,"date":"2012-09-05T17:45:36","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T21:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=1359"},"modified":"2012-09-05T17:45:36","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T21:45:36","slug":"ramchal-on-all-of-this-in-klach-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2012\/09\/05\/ramchal-on-all-of-this-in-klach-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramchal on all of this in Klach (4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

And finally, quite a lot is said here about the aforementioned and counter-intuitive usefulness<\/em> of the “necessary evil” that is rah <\/em>[1].<\/em><\/p>\n

Ramchal makes the point in Petach<\/em> 39 that everything in creation exists only for the glory of the Creator\u2026. In this are included all created beings — good and bad<\/em> — as the whole of it is a single system and a single phenomenon of a creation that implements the revelation of the sovereignty and glory of Ein Sof<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is, everything contributes to the eventual revelation of God\u2019s utter sovereignty, including rah<\/em>. Consequently, rah<\/em> is good, too — if we understand \u201cgood\u201d to mean contributing to the ultimate goal [2], which it does.<\/p>\n

After all, \u201cif God had so wanted,\u201d Ramchal points out, He could certainly have produced the universe \u201crectified from the first, without rah<\/em> at all. But He wanted rah<\/em> to exist and \u2026 to not be rectified until the end, when all that was withholding perfection (i.e., rah<\/em> and its offshoots) was removed\u201d (comments to Petach<\/em> 36).<\/p>\n

Here are some other statements to the effect that rah<\/em> simply had to be so as to no longer be in the end, and so as to thus prove God\u2019s greatness for having thwarted so mighty a seeming threat to His sovereignty.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything linked in any way to rah<\/em> must return to good so that through this overall return, the veracity of God\u2019s Yichud<\/em> will be revealed and made manifest. Thus, if any aspect of these details is missing, then the overall intention — the revelation of this Yichud<\/em> — would remain unfulfilled\u2026. For God\u2019s Yichud<\/em> will be revealed through the good created entities when the good in them is strengthened, and it will likewise be revealed through the \u2018bad\u2019 ones, when despite the fact that they are bad, they will have returned to good\u201d (comments to Petach 39).<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the great power of rah<\/em>, it\u2019s (nonetheless) one small matter that God wanted to display in order to demonstrate His perfection\u201d when it\u2019s to be undone by the revelation of His Yichud<\/em> (comments to Petach<\/em> 41).<\/p>\n

And, \u201crah<\/em> thus has two aspects. The first is when it first appears, when it brings about all sorts of blemishes and it functions as a \u2018stain on the glory of the King\u2019, so to speak, since it restricts the flow of His blessing\u2026. The second aspect, though, is after it has already existed but God\u2019s Yichud<\/em> takes control over it\u2026. Rah<\/em> then evidences the glory of the King\u2019s great sovereignty, as if to say, \u2018This is what the King prevailed against by His great perfection!\u2019\u201d (comments to Petach<\/em> 49).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all to say that, according to Ramchal, rah<\/em> was set up as a sort of straw-man — a false premise — which was to have its day, to thrive, and to seem a potent nemesis, but which will eventually be undone. And it\u2019s having been undone will underscore and prove God\u2019s sovereignty, as if to say that if so rampant, noxious, malignant, and potent a phenomenon can apparently<\/em> be allowed to hold sway but then be undone, it\u2019s having been undone in fact adds luster onto the face of its Undoer, Almighty God.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See 1:5 and 4:3.<\/p>\n

[2] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Moreh Nevuchim<\/em> 3:13.<\/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":"

And finally, quite a lot is said here about the aforementioned and counter-intuitive usefulness of the “necessary evil” that is rah [1]. Ramchal makes the point in Petach 39 that everything in creation exists only for the glory of the … 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-1359","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\/1359","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=1359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}