{"id":335,"date":"2011-01-14T06:19:01","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T10:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=335"},"modified":"2011-01-14T06:19:01","modified_gmt":"2011-01-14T10:19:01","slug":"petachim-5-and-6-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/01\/14\/petachim-5-and-6-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Petachim 5 and 6 (4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019d learned last time that \u201cGod wanted the Sephirot<\/em> to be known of<\/strong> so that we can understand the attribute itself <\/strong>\u2026 and so that we might understand what would be taking place in the governing process \u2026 at that time<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n

This raises a number of serious questions which we\u2019ll pose but only offer a limited response to since no one seems to address this, other than indirectly.<\/p>\n

If God wanted us — our people and humanity eventually, select individuals right now — to envision His Sephirot<\/em> and to know \u201cwhich way the wind is blowing\u201d, so to speak, at any given moment, then why aren\u2019t we? Why isn\u2019t this focused on, and why didn\u2019t Ramchal tell us how to do it himself?<\/p>\n

Some might say that this speaks to the need to study the physical sciences since they address present reality all the time; or perhaps political science, sociology, psychology, and the like. But I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

Ramchal himself has no particular objection to studying those things, given his acknowledgment in his introduction to Messilat Yesharim<\/em> of the fact that \u201cthe great majority of intelligent, enlightened, aware, and informed people expend a great deal of their energies on reflection upon and examination of the minutia of the various sciences, and upon subtle scholarship, each according to his own inclinations and personal bents \u2026. (including) cosmogony or physical science,\u2026 astronomy or mathematics and \u2026 art\u201d. And his acceptance of that is also alluded to by his statement near the end of the same book that \u201cthe path to piety for the one whose whole occupation is Torah scholarship is different from the one for the laborer, which is itself different from the one for the professional person\u201d, which acknowledges the legitimacy of other intellectual and professional paths (and we\u2019d also cite Ramchal\u2019s learned statements in his Sefer<\/em> HaHigayon<\/em> cited in note 22 of this section, as well as his work on Hebrew grammar and more for allusions to such acceptance).<\/p>\n

But we can\u2019t claim that those are the ways he\u2019d maintain that one is to train himself to envision the Sephirot<\/em>. Because while the various sciences enable us to see \u201cthe situation on the ground\u201d if you will — how God\u2019s governance plays itself out in the physical world — they don\u2019t enable us to catch sight of the movements in the heavens which is the implication of envisioning the Sephirot<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Our studying Klach Pitchei Chochma<\/em> and other Kabbalistic works are certainly meant to teach us how and where to \u201clook up into the skies\u201d so to speak, as they provide us with the \u201cmaps\u201d we\u2019d need beforehand, they don\u2019t end up teaching us how to do what needs to be done if we\u2019re to do what we must, which is to take those maps and set out to see the Sephirot<\/em> for ourselves.<\/p>\n

One answer suggested by Ramchal\u2019s statements further on in Klach<\/em> is that we must then become either prophets or the sorts of exalted souls who can indeed discern the movement of the Sephirot<\/em> as he\u2019ll point to later. But he doesn\u2019t tell us how to. R\u2019 Aryeh Kaplan z\u201dl was of the opinion that Messilat Yesharim<\/em> is itself a preparatory text for that (see \u201cMeditation and the Bible\u201d pp. 20-21), but few others say as much.<\/p>\n

Some rare individuals recite the various Yichudim<\/em> that are laid out in the Kavvanot<\/em> of the Ari, which do enable them to read and affect the heavens, as Ari lays it out there, But the great, great majority of us haven\u2019t any association with that.<\/p>\n

Our only consolation (and it\u2019s scant at that) lies in the fact that Ramchal often refers to the idea that once God\u2019s Yichud<\/em> becomes manifest we\u2019ll all understand God\u2019s governance in retrospect<\/em> (as cited at the end of Section 1; see sources cited there and in note 45 there). Thus the point is that while we might never catch sight of the Sephirot<\/em> now, we eventually will, and that itself is priceless.<\/p>\n

(c) 2011 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":"

We\u2019d learned last time that \u201cGod wanted the Sephirot to be known of so that we can understand the attribute itself \u2026 and so that we might understand what would be taking place in the governing process \u2026 at that … 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-335","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\/335","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=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}