{"id":544,"date":"2011-03-29T06:01:41","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T10:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=544"},"modified":"2011-03-29T06:01:41","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T10:01:41","slug":"ramchal-on-reward-and-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/03\/29\/ramchal-on-reward-and-punishment\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramchal on reward and punishment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ramchal is most explicit about the dynamics of reward and punishment in his Ma\u2019amar HaIkkurim<\/em> (\u201cA Discourse on Fundamentals\u201d) in the section entitled Hashgacha<\/em> (\u201cProvidence\u201d).<\/p>\n

His first point there is that \u201cGod oversees everything He created\u201d with an eye toward \u201cthe purpose for which it was created\u201d. That\u2019s to say that God is aware of everything that happens and makes sure that adjustments and alterations are made to accomplish His goal when necessary. Given that humans are the only free and independent agents whereas everything else simply follows course, it\u2019s clear that it\u2019s our<\/em> deeds and their consequences that need to be adjusted. That\u2019s why Ramchal then offers that \u201cthe providence that applies to humankind must be different from that of other beings\u201d.<\/p>\n

Given that we\u2019re free-agents it also follows that some of what we do \u201cresults in merit\u201d, i.e., our \u201cgood deeds\u201d; while some \u201cresult in liability\u201d, i.e., our \u201csins\u201d; and that each is recompensed, which is to say — they\u2019re reacted to and are either \u201crewarded\u201d because they further God\u2019s goal, or \u201cpunished\u201d or adjusted because they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The things we do that are neither good deeds nor sins per se<\/em>, however are allowed to follow the natural course of things simply because our free-agency has no bearing on them, and God just naturally makes sure they suit His goal (regardless of whether we understand how they do, or not).<\/p>\n

And finally we\u2019re taught that the \u201creward\u201d or \u201cpunishment\u201d is either administered in the course of one\u2019s life or afterwards, but the point of the matter is that God is well aware of everything and is sure to see to it that everything is prearranged or adjusted retroactively to suit His goal (which, as we learned, is the revelation of His Yichud<\/em>).<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more, of course.<\/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 is most explicit about the dynamics of reward and punishment in his Ma\u2019amar HaIkkurim (\u201cA Discourse on Fundamentals\u201d) in the section entitled Hashgacha (\u201cProvidence\u201d). His first point there is that \u201cGod oversees everything He created\u201d with an eye toward … 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-544","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\/544","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=544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}