{"id":464,"date":"2011-02-28T11:32:32","date_gmt":"2011-02-28T15:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=464"},"modified":"2011-02-28T11:32:32","modified_gmt":"2011-02-28T15:32:32","slug":"tachlis-and-then-some","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/02\/28\/tachlis-and-then-some\/","title":{"rendered":"Tachlis and then some"},"content":{"rendered":"

(We\u2019re going to be doing some cutting and pasting here. repeating a couple of points, reordering a bit, and adding on things to make our point. YF) <\/em><\/p>\n

As we\u2019d said earlier on, Ramchal declared that we\u2019re to study Kabbalah because it \u201cexplains how everything created and fashioned in the universe emanated from the Supreme Will\u201d; because it \u201cshows how everything is governed the right way by the One God, blessed be He, so as to ultimately bring all of creation to (a state of) utter perfection\u201d; because \u201call the details of this science [i.e., Kabbalah] serve as a laying-out of all the laws and processes [involved] in [God\u2019s] governance\u201d of the universe; and most especially because Kabbalah \u201ccomes to exhibit the truth of (the Jewish) Faith\u201d. In other words, as Ramchal understands it, Kabbalah explains and illustrates tachlis<\/em> — the point of it all — as nothing else can.<\/p>\n

Now, there are many who study Kabbalah for all the wrong reasons accordingly. They assume Ari is depicting a metaphysical transcendent reality that\u2019s to be studied assiduously like a super-cosmic map and floor-plan, and that if one \u201closes his way\u201d if you will along the galactic crossways he\u2019ll do tremendous damage and suffer more harm to himself than any good he could possibly do with his studies.<\/p>\n

The truth be known, on one level those individuals can\u2019t be blamed because, as Ramchal put it, because \u201cAri hardly explained himself, since he didn\u2019t want to express his thoughts (openly) in writing\u201d. So they couldn\u2019t know what he was setting out to explain.<\/p>\n

But as a consequence of Ari\u2019s hesitance, \u201chis readers took his words literally and (understood them) on a superficial level\u201d as we explained, and thus demeaned his message. But that\u2019s not right Ramchal said — it didn\u2019t \u201cat all\u201d befit \u201ca subject of study\u201d of this caliber. And as a result of that misapprehension of things all that those students were left with, for all intents and purposes, were \u201cnames and themes that one would have to memorize\u201d, which Ramchal describes as being tantamount to \u201ca table of contents\u201d. As such, the rest of us we\u2019re left \u201cwithout an understanding of the intentions or meaning\u201d of those terms (Introduction to\u00a0Ma\u2019amar HaVichuach<\/em>).<\/p>\n

So what Ramchal set out to do, he wrote in a letter, was to \u201ceradicate the mistaken notion that there are (for example) lights that (literally) turn into \u2018circles\u2019 or \u2018lines\u2019 as some believe\u201d, which \u201cthe ear simply cannot accept\u201d. And he took it upon himself to \u201cspell out the referent in each metaphor found in Ari\u2019s writings\u201d (Iggerot Ramchal<\/em> 50). That\u2019s to say, he set out to explain just what Ari meant by his symbols.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s tie this all in now to the makeup and \u201cappearance\u201d of the Sephirot<\/em>.<\/p>\n

At bottom, Ramchal contends that life and the universe at large is extraordinarily confusing and seemingly inexplicable, and that that fact alone often throws us and challenges our faith. Is there a plan, we wonder; is God in control; do we have meaning; does what we do matter in the end, etc.?<\/p>\n

As he himself worded it, \u201call the enormous and incongruous events in the world seem to contradict God\u2019s governance of the world, God forbid, given that we can\u2019t determine where everything is heading, what God wants of us, where He\u2019s leading us, and what will result from it all\u201d (Da\u2019at<\/em> Tevunot<\/em> 7).<\/p>\n

So, we need to know, and we need a system that will explain it. That system, Ramchal declares, is Kabbalah. We\u2019re to study it \u201cin order to understand (God\u2019s) governance, \u2026 (and to know) why He created all the various creatures, what He wants from them, what will come at the end of all the events of the universe, and how all these bizarre events are to be explained\u201d (comments to Petach<\/em> 90).<\/p>\n

His point there is that we can determine all that by understanding the interplay of the Sephirot<\/em> and the various Worlds which is the gist of the Kabbalistic system. Those Sephirot<\/em> and Worlds aren\u2019t abstract notions flitting about in the deepest reaches of outer-space or in the secret-most corners of pre-creation. They function in the here and now, and are to be utilized for distinct purposes.<\/p>\n

After all, isn\u2019t it written, \u201cYou have been shown (all sorts of wonders) in order to know that God is the Lord; there is no other beside Him\u201d (Deuteronomy 4:35)? Are we to imagine that the process has stopped, God forbid? Of course it has not. Ramchal\u2019s contention is that it continues in our day indeed — thanks to the study of Kabbalah which rests largely on the teachings of those prophets and great souls who could \u201cread\u201d the Sephirot<\/em> and their interactions, and to relate God\u2019s ways to us accordingly.<\/p>\n

To use Ramchal\u2019s own words, so the Sephirot <\/em>\u2026 were allowed to be \u201cenvisioned\u201d<\/strong> prophetically (Petach<\/em> 5) because God wanted them to be known of <\/strong>and for His governance to be \u201creadable\u201d, if you will; which is to say, He wanted us to understand what would be taking place in the governing process through that attribute at that time <\/strong>(Petach<\/em> 6).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s to say, thanks to those who can \u201cread\u201d the Sephirot<\/em> — who know the import of each metaphoric statement Ari offered in his great and piercing revelations — we know about life\u2019s meaning, what\u2019s being played out in the cosmos, who its most important \u201cactors\u201d are, and most importantly we now have insight into tachlis<\/em>.<\/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\u2019re going to be doing some cutting and pasting here. repeating a couple of points, reordering a bit, and adding on things to make our point. YF) As we\u2019d said earlier on, Ramchal declared that we\u2019re to study Kabbalah because … 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-464","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\/464","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=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}