{"id":433,"date":"2011-02-17T11:08:05","date_gmt":"2011-02-17T15:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=433"},"modified":"2011-02-17T11:08:05","modified_gmt":"2011-02-17T15:08:05","slug":"prophetic-insights-and-aristotle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/02\/17\/prophetic-insights-and-aristotle\/","title":{"rendered":"Prophetic insights and Aristotle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Along with Ma\u2019aseh<\/em> Merkava<\/em> (the account of the Merkava <\/em>experience) as a subject of intense inquiry was Ma\u2019aseh<\/em> Breishit<\/em>, the account of creation. Both had special status and carried a slew of restrictions, as we\u2019ll see. While we won\u2019t deal with Ma\u2019aseh<\/em> Breishit<\/em> much here simply because it isn\u2019t the subject at hand, we\u2019ll offer this about the two \u201caccounts\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rambam famously said that while\u00a0Ma\u2019aseh<\/em> Breishit <\/em>simply <\/em>speaks to the laws of nature and the makeup of the cosmos, Ma\u2019aseh<\/em> Merkava<\/em> simply speaks to metaphysics and the makeup of souls, angels, and the like [1]. The Kabbalists (Ramchal included) vehemently rejected that view and said it referred to themes discussed in the Zohar and other related mystical pehnomena [2].<\/p>\n

Part of the reason the Kabbalists rebuffed Rambam\u2019s model was that it placed the onus of proof upon traditional insights against Aristotle\u2019s theories, which were assumed to be patently true. The Kabbalists held that it was offensive to take anything as more factual than the sort of prophetic visions that Ezekiel, Isaiah <\/em>and others had of the Ma\u2019aseh<\/em> Merkava<\/em> and that Moses had of Ma\u2019aseh<\/em> Breishit<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We in modernity know that the great preponderance of Aristotle\u2019s ideas are simply wrong (in fact, one need only study Rambam writings on the subject that we cited in the notes to see how outlandish Aristotle\u2019s idea have proven to be). Does anyone in fact claim to be a die-hard Aristotelian, Platonist, or the like today? Does anyone doubt that Rambam himself would reject Aristotle\u2019s ideas if Rambam were alive today?<\/p>\n

One point is that Aristotle\u2019s physical model has failed, so subsuming prophetic insight into the nature of things to it is thus proved to be foolish, and we need to draw lessons from that [3].<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah<\/em> Ch\u2019s 1-4; see the Peticha<\/em> to Section 3 of Moreh Nevuchim<\/em>, and Ch\u2019s 1-7 there for a discussion of Ma\u2019aseh<\/em> Merkava<\/em>. Also see Meiri<\/em> to Chaggigah<\/em> 11a.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Avodat HaKodesh<\/em>, Chelek HaTachlit<\/em> 15; Shomer Emunim<\/em> 1:9 which cites several earlier sources. Also see Gra<\/em> to Yoreh Deah<\/em> 246:4, and Abarbanel\u2019s<\/em> introduction to his comments on Ezekiel.<\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean to say that we of the traditional community have a \u201clock\u201d on truth in light of that, since one\u2019s readings of the traditional insights could prove to have been wrong in the end, too. It only means to argue for humility and for patience in the search for truth, which this is all about in the end.<\/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":"

Along with Ma\u2019aseh Merkava (the account of the Merkava experience) as a subject of intense inquiry was Ma\u2019aseh Breishit, the account of creation. Both had special status and carried a slew of restrictions, as we\u2019ll see. While we won\u2019t deal … 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-433","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\/433","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=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}