{"id":520,"date":"2011-03-21T05:46:37","date_gmt":"2011-03-21T09:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=520"},"modified":"2011-03-21T05:46:37","modified_gmt":"2011-03-21T09:46:37","slug":"the-yetzer-harah-and-yetzer-hatov-reward-and-punishment-and-free-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/03\/21\/the-yetzer-harah-and-yetzer-hatov-reward-and-punishment-and-free-will\/","title":{"rendered":"The yetzer harah and yetzer hatov, reward and punishment, and free will"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ramchal introduced the idea of morality (as well as free will and the system of reward and punishment) at the beginning of this section, in his very first comments to Petach<\/em> 14. Explaining the structure of the Sephirot,<\/em> Ramchal introduces the idea that God granted humankind \u201can intellect and a yetzer hatov<\/em> (i.e., an \u201cinclination toward goodness\u201d) and a yetzer harah<\/em> (i.e., an \u201cinclination toward wrongdoing\u201d) that he could control\u201d with that intellect. He went on to say there that God also granted humankind \u201ca means of serving (Him or not serving Him) as a result of which man would earn (either) merit or punishment (in the Afterlife) until he becomes purified\u201d, and He likewise \u201cgranted him an eternal reward (in The World to Come)\u201d once he is<\/em> purified.<\/p>\n

Bringing this all back to the subject of the Sephirot<\/em>, though, Ramchal then adds that \u201ceach one of these things involves many details,\u201d and that we\u2019re obliged to understand \u201cjust how many gradations were needed to attain this\u201d, meaning to say that we need to study the makeup and interplay of the Sephirot<\/em> if we\u2019re ever going to understand how Divine Justice plays itself out in the world.<\/p>\n

The point is that were it not for the system of multifarious and sequential Sephirot<\/em> man wouldn\u2019t have free will, and there\u2019d be neither reward nor punishment. The logic seems to be that if sequence and hierarchy weren\u2019t in place, then all of God\u2019s beneficence would emanate evenly from His single Being without regard to the worth, merit, or standing of the recipients given that everyone would stand on the same moral and spiritual ground [1]. But that couldn\u2019t be, since we\u2019re to be free moral agents and to deserve reward or punishment.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see how Ramchal put it elsewhere: \u201cGod created the world through the (sequential and hierarchal) system of ten Sephirot<\/em>, and so the world is \u2026 (hence to be) governed according the dictates of these ten Sephirot<\/em>. And (because) God wanted man to have free choice He \u2018decreed\u2019 (i.e., decided) that He (Himself) wouldn\u2019t function according to His own full being and will (which is beyond sequence and hierarchy, and is utterly benevolent), but rather according to how His recipients (i.e., according to how we, the recipients of His benevolence, who do indeed function according to sequence and hierarchy) would establish things\u201d through their free will [2].<\/p>\n

So we\u2019ll now spend some time explaining the classical ideas of a yetzer harah<\/em> and yetzer hatov <\/em>(and their relationship to the intellect which Ramchal alluded to above), of reward and punishment, and of free will, and we\u2019ll compare and contrast them with Ramchal\u2019s understanding of those things.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Kinat Hashem Tz\u2019vaot<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See the work that R\u2019 Friedlander published as \u201cDa\u2019at Tevunot<\/em> 2\u201d, p. 22.<\/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":"

Ramchal introduced the idea of morality (as well as free will and the system of reward and punishment) at the beginning of this section, in his very first comments to Petach 14. Explaining the structure of the Sephirot, Ramchal introduces … 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-520","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\/520","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=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}