{"id":188,"date":"2010-12-05T06:23:11","date_gmt":"2010-12-05T10:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=188"},"modified":"2010-12-05T06:23:11","modified_gmt":"2010-12-05T10:23:11","slug":"a-quick-aside-god-and-the-meaning-of-life-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2010\/12\/05\/a-quick-aside-god-and-the-meaning-of-life-1\/","title":{"rendered":"A Quick Aside: God and the Meaning of Life (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ramchal offers us this astounding remark in the Mishna of Petach<\/em> 3: The world was ultimately created so that God could be beneficent \u2026 <\/strong>(and) to bestow utmost goodness<\/strong> <\/strong>upon the universe. Contained in that statement are answers to two of the most vexing existential questions of all: why God created the universe, and (by extension) what the meaning of our lives is. Let\u2019s tread lightly into those eternal topics now [1].<\/p>\n

While Ramchal discusses God\u2019s reason for having created the universe in a number of places, his point here is that it comes down to the fact that God did so in order to bestow goodness upon it [2]. Elsewhere though he famously offered that we were created to \u201cdelight in God and enjoy the radiance of His Divine presence\u201d (Messilat<\/em> Yesharim<\/em> Ch. 1) [3]. But what that seeming contradiction speaks to is the fact that while God does indeed want us to experience goodness, nonetheless since the greatest goodness we can experience in fact is His own presence, then our having that experience is His ultimate goal for us [4].<\/p>\n

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Notes:<\/p>\n

[1] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, Ramchal adjured us (in the work that serves as an introduction to Klach<\/em> in some editions, which is otherwise known as Derech Eitz Chaim<\/em>) to make a point of setting aside time to ask ourselves who we are at bottom, why we were placed in the world, what God requires of us, and what will be our end.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Derech Hashem<\/em> 1:2 (beginning); Sod<\/em> HaYichud<\/em> (Ginzei<\/em> Ramchal<\/em> p. 265); Da\u2019at Tevunot<\/em> 18; Ma\u2019amar HaChochma<\/em>, \u201cV\u2019omek Shel HaInyan<\/em>\u201d; and\u00a0Iggerot Pitchei Chochma v\u2019Da\u2019at<\/em>, \u201cYediah Sheniya<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s overarching benevolence was discussed in earlier classical works: see for example Emunot<\/em> v\u2019De\u2019ot<\/em> (Introduction to Section 3), Ohr Hashem<\/em> <\/em>2:6:5 (and elsewhere there), Sefer<\/em> HaYashar<\/em> (1), and Eitz Chaim<\/em>,\u00a0Sha\u2019ar HaKlallim<\/em> <\/em>(beg.).<\/p>\n

[3] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He actually wrote there that indeed \u201cwe were created to delight in God and enjoy the radiance of His Divine presence\u201d, but he added that \u201cthe means to bring you to this goal are the mitzvot<\/em> that God has commanded\u201d, and thus \u201cthe main purpose of our having been placed in this world was to observe the mitzvot<\/em>, to serve God, and to withstand spiritual trials\u201d (Ibid.<\/em>). The point of the matter, though, is that while we were placed in this world<\/em> in order \u201cto observe the mitzvot<\/em>, to serve God, and to withstand spiritual trials\u201d, since all of that will contribute to our earning a place in the World to Come, in truth our ultimate reason for having been created was to \u201cdelight in God and enjoy the radiance of His Divine presence\u201d, and that can only be experienced in the World to Come.<\/p>\n

That distinction also explains his statement elsewhere that \u201cthe universe was created so that \u201cGod\u2019s Yichud<\/em> can manifest itself before everyone\u201d (Da\u2019at<\/em> Tevunot<\/em> 34, 36, 44,48, 116, 158; also see Petach 4 where he writes that The Infinite One wanted to express utter and complete<\/strong> <\/strong>benevolence<\/strong> <\/em>\u2026 so He set out to<\/strong> <\/strong>(eventually)\u00a0reveal His<\/strong> <\/strong>Yichud<\/em><\/strong>), which we\u2019ll discuss in detail below. The point is that God wants us to delight in His presence in the World to Come<\/em>. See the next note as well.<\/p>\n

[4] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Petach<\/em> 4 (p. 13) and Derech<\/em> Hashem<\/em> 1:2:1.<\/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":"

Ramchal offers us this astounding remark in the Mishna of Petach 3: The world was ultimately created so that God could be beneficent \u2026 (and) to bestow utmost goodness upon the universe. Contained in that statement are answers to two … 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-188","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\/188","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=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}