On This Week's Parsha

I submitted this article for AishDas's weekly "Mesukim Midvash" series:


1.

Hardly a day goes by without a sensitive soul wondering how he or she might have done better at this or that. After all, we all err, and there's not a moment that isn't fraught with mixed successes and failures in our avodah. But we're told in two adjacent pesukim in our parsha that there's always hope, for we can always do teshuvah (see Devarim 4:29 and 4:30). But what is teshuvah, at bottom? On one level it's simply the process of refraining from doing a wrong, taking it upon yourself never to do it again, regretting having done it, and verbally admitting you'd done it, as Rambam lays it out (Hilchos Teshuvah 2:2).

There are several other worthwhile things Rambam suggests we might do to repent for our sins, which we'll come back to. And they align more or less with Rabbeinu Yonah's more strident counsel that, among other things, we should come to feel despondent about what we'd done as well as worry about and be ashamed of it, that we ask G-d for help in our teshuvah, and that we learn to overcome *all* our physical cravings in the process as well as to scrutinize all our ways (Shaarei Teshuvah 1:10-50).

2.

I once met a truly *fine* person who'd once been one of the "dregs" of society -- a penitent in the classical sense of the term. He'd been a blackguard, having been a drug addict, having lived barbarically underground in abandoned subway stops, and having robbed others aboveground for drugs.

Now, while Rabbeinu Yonah's demands seem reasonable-enough or even mild for someone like him, or for us more "pedestrian" sinners when we're confronted by the more existentially threatening instances that Rabbeinu Yonah offers there -- as when we're overrun by troubles, when we grow old, when we're admonished by a talmid chacham, etc. (see Gate 2 there) -- still-and-all none of those demands seem to touch upon what I take to be our center-most *daily* ethical dilemma. That is, how to stop ourselves from doing something we know to be wrong which we intend to do anyway.

There's something else puzzling about Rabbeinu Yonah's notion of teshuva, to my mind. It seems to disregard basic human nature. After all, as Bachya Ibn Pakudah points out (Chovos Halevovos, Introduction to Gate 7), we all tend to be "negligent when it comes to (our) duties to the Creator" from time to time, simply "because (we're) impulsive by nature and made up of many opposing elements, traits and motives". After all, we're "sometimes pleasant, other times objectionable; sometimes criminal, other times righteous; sometimes good, other times bad". Thus, Bachya Ibn Pakudah seems to contend that we indeed need constant access to teshuva much the way computers need fans to run all the time -- in order not to "overheat". But that we should find it easy enough to do it.

So again, what will inspire us to repent on a more everyday level, and how do we stop ourselves from sinning when we're about to?

3.

I think the two pesukim in our parsha help explain what we'd need to concentrate on, and that Rambam's other suggestions we alluded to offer what we can do. The pesukim tell us that we'd have to "find" G-d again after sinning and to "return" to Him. But how does one ever "lose" or "leave" G-d in the first place?

As Rabbeinu Yonah explains, we leave (i.e., "abandon") G-d each time we sin (Shaarei Teshuvah 1:10). So, all we'd need do to return to Him would be to call upon the primal pull in the human heart to do just that; for as many gedolim have explained, we're all "parts" of G-d that just naturally long to return to our “Source” (see Tanya Ch. 44). So the easiest way to transcend our everyday derelictions would be to sense the loss of G-d in our lives and truly want Him back.

And I contend that Rambam's other words advise us how to "find" Him once we'd "lost" Him -- which is to say, what to do when we're about to sin and lose our connection to G-d despite ourselves. Rambam offers that we should "cry out to G-d (for help) and give tzaddakah" when we repent (Hilchos Teshuva 2:4). And I suggest that we'd do well to do just that, right there and then, in order to hold ourselves back from sinning. (I myself have done much like that, as well as asked G-d to help me avoid a particular sin *for the next hour*, hour after hour, which has worked). And I also suggest that we heed Rambam's more dramatic suggestions there that we "change our name" and "wander about from place to place" in teshuvah. Which is to say, that we picture ourselves as being someone greater than who we are (and thus assume another "name") right there and then, and that we ("wander" about in our minds so as to) transpose ourselves into someone who wouldn't commit that particular sin.

May G-d always grant us the wherewithal to serve Him.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

A Condensation of Tanya (Part 6)

A CONDENSATION OF RABBI SHNEUR ZALMAN'S "TANYA"
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
_______________________________________________

PART SIX: Ch's 41 - 50

1. While not quite left as afterthoughts, the sort of "ahava" (love of G-d) and "yirah" (fear of or reverence for G-d) we'd need to serve Him auspiciously wasn't really delved into in the last section, but they'll indeed be the focal point of this one. We'll thus learn here how love and reverence interact with and nourish each other, and about the different grades of them we can manifest.

2. Yirah is deemed to be the "beginning, basis, and source of one's (Divine) service", and ahava is said to be an expression of our longing to cling on to G-d by means of His Torah and mitzvot. We're told that *both* are needed, since each serves as an indispensable wing with which to "fly" in our service (see end of Part 5).

3. There are various degrees of yirah. The lower sort "merely" acts as a stimulus for fulfilling mitzvot while the higher sort is loftier.

4. Expanding upon what was said just above, first and foremost, ahava is an expression of our longing to unite our souls with and have it be incorporated into the Light of Ein Sof. Additionally, and on a higher plane, it's the desire to "unite G-d with the source of one's G-dly spirit as well as the source of the Jewish Nation's souls, and to have them affix themselves onto each other".

5. Moshe said, “What does G-d your L-rd ask of you but to [simply] fear G-d your L-rd” (Deuteronomy 10:12). But our sages asked, "Is fearing G-d so simple?" to which they concluded that it indeed is -- for Moshe. So we're taught here that the import of that statement is to indicate that we can easily foster yirah by drawing upon either Moshe's own yirah (which we're all capable of drawing upon) or upon the yirah of his representatives in our own day and age -- our sages.

6. The particular ways to draw upon our lower latent, native yirah and to arrive at the utterly unlike more clandestine, higher yirah are then spelled out in some detail. At bottom they hinge upon the specific realities we're to reflect upon.

7. We draw upon our lower, native yirah by dwelling on G-d's greatness, and on how He infuses and hovers over everything, and perceives everything; and by accompanying that with the acceptance of the yoke of Heaven. Higher yirah is identified with being shamefaced before G-d's Presence and with the fostering of what's termed "inner-awe".

8. There are likewise two fundamental levels of ahava. The first is termed "eternal love" (which comes as a consequence of your efforts to concentrate upon G-d's greatness and your serving Him) and "great love" or "a love of delights" (which is a gift from G-d). But the latter is only granted after you will have achieved full, higher yirah.

9. There's yet another sort of ahava that incorporates the two above which is also available to us all as a national inheritance. But it too is comprised of two over-all sorts. There's the sort of love one would have for G-d that's like the love he'd have for his own life and soul, his own well-being, in the conviction that G-d himself is his very life-force and impetus. And there's the sort that's like the love he'd express when doing all he could for his parents selflessly and self-sacrificingly.

10. With all that in our hearts we can then engage in Torah and mitzvot on a higher level, and can then foster the degree of compassion we each inherit from Yaakov our forefather, which we're to direct toward our G-dly spirit and the Divine Presence, which are both in exile. When we do that, we conjoin the two in a "kiss" that's an expression of the "adhesion of two spirits onto each other".

11. There are yet other ways to ignite the love of G-d that we have within us. And they center upon reflecting upon how much G-d loves *us* and using that to be inspired to love Him in return. After all, He forsook all celestial and material entities and chose to focus upon our people, as when He brought us out of Egypt and drew us so close to Him by granting us His Torah.

12. An underlying point associated with that, too, is that just as He liberated us from Egypt in the past and drew us close to Him, our serving Him by fulfilling His mitzvot and studying His Torah "liberates" us from physicality and enables us to be subsumed in the Light of Ein Sof.

13. We then go on to delve into the great *tzimtzum* -- G-d's act of delimiting His Being to some degree so as to allow for the finite and determinate universe to exist despite His overarching and infinite Presence. And also to allow for souls and celestial entities to experience G-dliness and to bask in His Light without the threat of the sort of personal annihilation one would expect in the face of that. But at bottom all that came about so as to allow for mortal man with his ignoble body, who can -- despite it all -- manage to overturn the other side and allow for more light, rather than darkness, in the universe.

14. With all *that" in mind we're capable of loving G-d so much more for having arranged for all that; and we too can "delimit" ourselves, i.e., our untoward urges, so as to serve and attach ourselves onto Him.

15. Finally, there's the level of ahava known as "fiery" ahava which is of an entirely different order of ahava. It's rooted in a thirsting and pining for G-d that expresses itself in a desire to be removed from all physicality on the one hand, and the opposite urge to serve G-d in the physical world so as to make a dwelling place for His Presence on earth (which is the point of our having been born, after all).

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

A Condensation of Tanya (Part 5)

A CONDENSATION OF RABBI SHNEUR ZALMAN'S "TANYA"
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
_______________________________________________

PART FIVE: Ch's 35-40

1. We'll once again harken back to Tanya's "motto" that “the matter is very near-at-hand to you ... so that you can do (i.e., accomplish) it” (Deuteronomy 30:14), and focus this time on the final theme of accomplishing things. We'll do that by relating the utter momentousness of observing the physical, practical mitzvot; and most especially in a spirit of love and reverence.

2. At bottom, the importance of the physical, practical mitzvot lies in the fact that the Divine Presence only manages to dwell upon our animalistic spirits and our bodies as a result of those physical mitzvot. in fact, when we fulfill those mitzvot, our physical capacities come to be utterly subsumed in G-d's radiance and will.

3. That's so vitally important because it fulfills G-d's desire to have "a dwelling-place in the lower worlds", which in fact is why this physical, garish, and lowest of worlds -- which came about as a consequence of a series of descents of the upper worlds, step by step -- was created. For indeed, we enable G-d's Presence to dwell in this world by overcoming the other side and turning darkness to light by fulfilling His mitzvot here, and we strengthen His illumination in the upper worlds at the selfsame time.

4. In fact, though, the reality of G-d's Presence in this lower world will only *fully* manifest itself in the World to Come, after the dead would have been resurrected. And that will be on par with the revelation our people enjoyed at Mount Sinai (which was undone with the sin of the golden calf, when we and the world at large were once again diminished).

5. As such the World to Come will only come to full realization as a consequence of our deeds, here in the world as it is now, while we're in exile. For when we fulfill mitzvot here we suffuse the world with "Ohr Ein Sof" (the most sublime and recondite manifestation of Divine Presence, literally translated as "[the shining of the] Infinite Light" or "[a revelation of the] Light of the Infinite").

6. But not only do we allow for that revelation when we engage in physical mitzvot, we also disallow the "luminous" husk its potency (see Condensation 1:5) and manage to subsume it within holiness by applying its life-energy to the fulfillment of mitzvot. So, for example, when we eat kosher food at appropriate times and say the requisite blessings for it beforehand and afterwards, all our limbs and organs -- as well as the luminous husk -- associated with that action are subsumed in holiness at that point. Understand too that once *all* of our people fulfill all the mitzvot all luminous husks will be subsumed within holiness.

7. Now, the three utterly *impure* husks can't ordinarily be subsumed in holiness, even when we engage in mitzvot, though they do derive their power from (the source of) holiness, through the agency of the luminous husk. But RSZ contends that when the luminous husk is subsumed in holiness in the course of the World to Come (see #4 above) that phenomenon itself undoes the fact that the three utterly impure husks draw from holiness, and sees to it that it will all be undone. And that will itself result in the world being cleansed of all physicality, when it will experience the revelation of G-d's Light.

8. But it's important to underscore the fact that Torah study is *also* essential in the course of fulfilling G-d's will to dwell in this world. Since when we study it, our entire beings (mind and speech *as well as* body) are subsumed in holiness, and we touch and affect deeper parts of our being and the universe through Torah-study accordingly.

9. Let's return to the importance of fulfilling physical, practical mitzvot. Know that there are two levels involved: there's the purely physical level, and then there's the inner, more spiritual causal level (i.e., what motives and impulses you bring to the act, and what you hope to accomplish). Each contributes to the displaying of G-dliness in the world it's own way, but the causal level contributes more so (especially when you mean to attach yourself onto the Divine Presence through your mitzvot, and you do them in a spirit of great love and reverence).

10. For, indeed, when your aim is to attach yourself onto the Divine Presence and you do it in a spirit of great love and reverence -- if you do so *as a reflection of an intellectual grasp of G-d's being* and thus become *a selfless "vehicle" to His Presence*, then you're actions would be on par with those of the "great tzaddikim", which is the very highest level. (Of course, the benefits you'd reap from Torah-study also depends upon your motivations.)

11. It's nonetheless important to fulfill mitzvot and to study Torah even lovelessly and unreverentially, or for ulterior and self-serving motives. But know that when you do so in a spirit of love and reverence for G-d and for altruistic, selfless reasons, all of that act as "wings" (i.e., great spurs) to your Divine service and it greatly advances your being.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

R' Ashlag Ch. 8

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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Chapter 8

1.

"So let's now plumb the depths of the kabbalists’ viewpoint we cited in the third inquiry (in Ch. 2). We were struck by their statement (there) that our souls are a part of G-d much the way a stone is a part of the mountain it's hewn from, the only difference being that one is a 'piece' while the other is the 'whole'."

-- What does the statement that "our souls are a part of G-d" mean? G-d certainly can't be subdivided, because if we assumed that He *could* be then we'd be forced to arrive at certain inanities like the idea that everyone is, say, a trillionth of G-d. But if that were so, then G-d would only be an aggregate of His parts, and as soon as one would be missing, He'd be that much less-than perfect. But that's absurd since G-d is perfect and whole, "one, sheer, complete, total, unalloyed, and indivisible" (2:1).

"For after all, it's one thing to say that a stone can be hewn from a mountain by an ax made for that purpose -- but how could anyone say anything like that about G-d? And *with what* were our souls 'hewn' and withdrawn from Him in order to become created entities?"

-- There's also the dilemma of what tool one could ever use to separate a "part of G-d" from "the rest of Him". It would obviously have to be stronger than Him, which is also absurd, by definition.

2.

"But now we can understand this for ourselves: for just as (something physical like) an ax can hew and separate physical things from each other, (something intangible like) a difference of *tsurah* can likewise separate two spiritual things from each other. Let's illustrate that. While we'd consider two people who love each other as being 'attached' to each other and a single entity (for all intents and purposes), on the contrary we'd consider two people who hate each other as being as disparate as east is from west."

-- This is a complex paragraph, with many points made. Let's begin by defining terms. One's *tsurah* {*tsurot* in the plural} is his make-up and character, which is to say his physical, intellectual, and emotional selfness -- your impalpable "you", and my impalpable "me". And we'lll add that a tsurah is termed "spiritual" even though it has nothing to do with one's soul because it refers to a person's intangible personal qualities.

-- Now, the Hebrew term for "attachment", *d'vekut*, usually alludes to the sort of selfless and utterly amorphous adhesion onto the Divine that the righteous long for and sometimes achieve. It's taken to be the fulfillment of a great degree of adoration for G-d and is often depicted as swooning before the Divine Presence. The closest everyday experiences we have of it are great and whole camaraderie or romantic love. But R' Ashlag will present us with an entirely different understanding of the term.

-- His point here is that when one person's make-up, and character is aligned with another's, the two are very compatible and they're thus great friends or in love with one another, and are "attached". Contrarily, if their make-up and characters are *in*compatable, there's an intangible psychic breach between them that's just as real as the breach between two hewn stones. Hence, what attaches people to each other is the likeness of their tsurot.

"It wouldn't be a question of their physical proximity so much as a compatibility of tsurot."

-- Their physical proximity wouldn't have anything to do with their attachment, since they could be "close" to each other on an emotional, psychic level even if they were worlds apart if their tsurot were on par. After all, they'd be compatible because of the high degree of affinity between them.

"For when their tsurot are so identical that each loves what the other loves and hates what the other hates they in fact love one another and are 'attached' to one another. But if they have disparate tsurot -- meaning that one of them loves something that the other hates (and vice versa) -- then the more disparate they are, the farther from and less attached are they to each other. As such, if they're comprised of opposite tsurot and each one loves what the other hates and vice versa, then they're as distant from each other as east is from west, which is to say, utterly so."

-- So what is it that attaches us onto G-d? It must be the things we have "in common" with Him. Apparently, then, when we're at variance with Him we're distant from Him. Recall, though, that G-d is everywhere; so in fact the only way anyone could ever be said to be "distant" from Him would be in his make-up and character.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

A Condensation of Tanya (Part 4)

A CONDENSATION OF RABBI SHNEUR ZALMAN'S "TANYA"
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
_______________________________________________

PART FOUR: Ch's 26-34

1. There are several things for each one of us to watch out for that could dissuade us from drawing close to G-d and to dedicating ourselves to His service -- things that eat away at our simple happiness.

2. After all, success at drawing close to Him hinges upon our ability to overcome our untoward urges, and we only manage to do that well when we're happy, enthusiastic, and inspired in our Divine service. But we fail at it when we serve G-d in a sluggish, humdrum, worrisome, and dispirited sort of way. So it would obviously serve us well to know how to be and stay happy.

3. For, "if it's true that when one of two wrestlers trying to throw the other to the ground is sluggish, the other is sure to win even if the sluggish one is actually stronger, it's likewise true that it's impossible to defeat the yetzer harah sluggishly" (Ch. 26), despite your innate goodness and gifts. So we'd also need to learn how to avert the sort of sluggishness and humdrum borne out of sadness.

4. The truth be known, sometimes it's perfectly appropriate to be averse to and bitter about (though not saddened by) by certain things -- like your failings. But it's important not to be sad or worried about everyday things not related to your spiritual standing, even when they touch upon some serious things like family, health and livelihood. You're to do all you can to accept everything happily (in ways to be explained).

5. Even when your sadness is based upon your spiritual standing, there's a healthy way to react to it. It would be to express contrition and *bitterness* about your sins (i.e., to experience a "bad taste in your mouth" about them; to find them disgusting and unpalatable, rather than bleak and disheartening). But even that should only be expressed at specific times. If such feelings come upon you on their own, though, then you're to do all you can to nullify them, since sadness then is rooted in unholiness.

6. In fact, there's little difference as to whether sadness comes over you when you're engaged in mitzvot or at work (for example); it only comes upon you to throw you off-track and to encourage you to sin. But if it comes upon you at work than you should be glad about being given the opportunity to fulfill the injunction not to be swayed by the promptings of your heart or your eyes. If it comes upon you while you're engaged in mitzvot, then you're to likewise reject them. But don't then be concerned that you should be having untoward thoughts or the like while you're praying or studying Torah, since rather than indicating that you're unworthy, it underscores the fact that you're being (deservedly) challenged.

7. Now, if you suffer from the aforementioned sluggishness and dispiritedness, and you can't arouse yourself to serve G-d, then know that all that comes over you because your inner husk is overcovering G-d's light and thus closing you off to its influence. The best thing to do would be to shatter that husk by subjugating yourself to G-d and asking Him for help. It also helps to realize your distance from G-d at that time and how impure your sins have left you, and to dwell upon your spiritual stature even in comparison to many others you'd ordinarily consider to be more lowly than you.

8. Should that make you sad in fact (which we're trying to avoid, recall), know that that's a beneficial sadness which will help you to overcome your failings, and will lead to the aforementioned cleansing and beneficial contrition and bitterness that would foster true repentance and the sort of joy that comes from liberating one's soul from the exile of life in a body.

9. In fact, having that perspective also makes it easier for us to love other Jews as we're enjoined to. After all, we'd have come to realize how much more significant the soul is than the body in the big picture, and how much more joy there is in spiritual rather than material attainment. And that would lead us to focus upon the soul of our fellow Jews rather than upon their personal selves, and to love them on *that* level (which in turn helps us to foster a love of G-d).

10. In any event (returning to our main theme for this section), the best way to achieve true joy is to dwell deeply upon the reality of G-d's omnipresence and dominion (as is explained), and to set that in your heart firmly. For that will enable you to set up a dwelling place for Him in your full being.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

********************************
Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

A Condensation of "Da'at Tevunot" (Part 3)

A CONDENSATION OF RABBI MOSHE CHAIM LUZZATTO'S "DA'AT TEVUNOT"
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Part Three: The Epoch of "Hester Panim" (The Concealing of the Divine Visage)

1. This epoch is characterized by the presence -- and outright prominence -- of both right and wrong, throughout. Neither right nor wrong is as clear-cut or open-and-shut as it could be; and each has its own vindicator. While baffling, that situation still and all allows for choice, and it thus affords us the chance to perfect ourselves (by choice). But it also allows for out-and-out wrong and all its complications to become stronger.

2. Despite that, though, and not withstanding its hiddenness, G-d's goodness and presence still *does* manifest itself in the universe then, though in a relatively reduced state.

3. Another way of putting that is to say that despite appearances, G-d's utter dominion *is* still in play then -- in the background. It's in fact the force behind all that happens, and it still-and-all sees to it that everything -- right and wrong -- that happens contributes to the eventual revelation of G-d's utter dominion. (Ponder the stunning implications of that! And consider it in light of Song of Songs 2:9's statement that "My beloved is like a gazelle or young hart", so swift is He; "behold, He stands behind our wall" for now, but He nonetheless "looks in through the windows, and peers through the lattice", ready to come forward any moment.)

4. It's just that the Divine attribute of justice (which rewards right and disciplines wrong) must still play itself out in the course of things as they are now, even though G-d's ameliorating attribute of utter dominion (which transcends right and wrong) is still-and-all here as we said, in the background.

5. But that raises another question about G-d's revelation of His ultimate dominion. Didn't we already point out that G-d's full Being can't be comprehended? So what's the significance of the statement that He'll eventually reveal His full dominion?

6. This touches on a profound notion with wide and high implications that's only to be said outright by the unperturbed, and in a hush. But let's at least offer this: that it does indeed speak to G-d's very Being itself. Yet let's also suggest that we not go deeper into the sea than we can swim.

7. But in short, it harkens back to the idea we'd mentioned that G-d utilized and manifested just a fragment of His Being to create the cosmos (see Part 2, #1 and #21; and #2 above), and thusby created the universe that we could endure (and that could provide us with all our needs), rather than one that He's fully capable of creating. It's also important to underscore that He likewise created us in a way that only expresses a fragment of *our* being, in order to allow us the opportunity to perfect ourselves.

8. So, in answer to the question posed in #5 above, when G-d reveals His utter Dominion over everything, that wouldn't be His very Self He'd be revealing so much as "only" the highest and most sublime aspect of Himself that He utilizes to interface with the truncated universe He created. But we're also taught that that revelation will then undue our blemishes and will allow us to achieve the sort of relative perfection apropos to our beings. (Ramchal refers to our ultimate perfect state elsewhere, but that's beyond the scope of the subject at hand).

9. Everything in the universe -- right and wrong, major and minor, etc. -- will serve to have ushered in that near-perfect state at that point. And we'll come to understand in the course of the World to Come just how everything in fact played such a role and served to assert G-d's Omniscience.

10. At bottom it all comes down to the fact that every act of perfection is attributable to something G-d Himself did or had something else do, much the way that everything continues to exist thanks only to G-d's own will that it does. For G-d must exist for anything else to exist while everything exists only because G-d wants it to. For His will provides the "space" (i.e., wherewithal) for everything to exist. After all, He existed before anything else did and thus enabled and continues to enable everything else to exist; and he's utterly independent -- though desirous -- of them and everything associated with them.

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

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Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".