{"id":439,"date":"2011-02-20T12:33:49","date_gmt":"2011-02-20T16:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=439"},"modified":"2011-02-20T12:33:49","modified_gmt":"2011-02-20T16:33:49","slug":"whats-so-scary-about-the-merkava","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/02\/20\/whats-so-scary-about-the-merkava\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s so scary about the Merkava?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why, though, were we told that “The Account of the Merkava<\/em> should only be taught to the wise and to those able to deduce through wisdom on their own” (Mishna Chagiga<\/em> 2:1)? Apparently because there were dangers involved, as in the case of the child who studied it and suddenly died (Chagiga<\/em> 13b) and of the student who was struck with leprosy when studying it (J.T. Chagiga<\/em> 3:1). Also because the Divine Presence and various ministering angels appear before those who study it (Chagiga<\/em> 14b), or a fire would surround them and the earth would tremble (J.T. Chagiga<\/em> 3:1), and few could withstand that.<\/p>\n

Ramchal refers to the Merkava<\/em> later on in Klach<\/em> as we\u2019ll see [1] and in other esoteric works to a limited extent. But he dedicated an entire, albeit small, book to the subject entitled Pinot<\/em> HaMerkava<\/em> (\u201cThe Corners of the Merkava\u201d) [2].<\/p>\n

An abstruse work, Pinot<\/em> HaMerkava <\/em>ties various themes together. Most significantly for our purposes it addresses the role that the Merkava<\/em> plays in prophecy and what the prophet is to \u201cenvision\u201d, and the place each \u201ccorner\u201d has in the ultimate redemption and revelation of God\u2019s Yichud<\/em>. It\u2019s thus easy to see why Ramchal discusses the subject at this early juncture even though its particulars don\u2019t quite belong here.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Petachim<\/em> 24, 31, 57, and 129.<\/p>\n

[2] \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s contained in Ginzei<\/em> Ramchal<\/em> pp. 310-359.<\/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":"

Why, though, were we told that “The Account of the Merkava should only be taught to the wise and to those able to deduce through wisdom on their own” (Mishna Chagiga 2:1)? Apparently because there were dangers involved, as in … 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-439","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\/439","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=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}