"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Four, Part 8)

“Spiritual Excellence” with Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Our Current Text: Moshe Maimonides's (Rambam's) “Eight Chapters”

-- Rabbi Feldman's on going series for Torah.org

**********************************************************

"Eight Chapters"

Chapter Four (Part 8)

There have always been some who are willing to do whatever it takes to dedicate their lives and immortal souls to G-d Almighty. They seem to live in a dimension apart from our own where ordinary things are tinged with uncommon color, where events are typical enough but invariably breathtaking, and where G-d is always the subject under discussion. They're the pious; and other than prophets, they're the greatest among us since they're so dedicated and have honed their minds and personalities so well.

Now, wanting to dedicate their beings that way but not wanting to throw their systems off-kilter, as we'd been warned not to, these pious souls would go *somewhat* beyond the norm and be a little too-much of this, or too-little of that. But they were careful not to go too far, despite their extreme desire to dedicate themselves to a life of piety.

So as Rambam depicts it, "they’d tend to be somewhat more ascetic than temperate; somewhat more daring than courageous; somewhat more earnest than boastful; somewhat more humble than meek" and the like. Acting that way was termed by our sages as “(going) beyond the letter of the law“ (Babba Metziah 30B) -- what we'd term, "going the extra mile".

"Once in a while, though" Rambam indicates, "some pious individuals would tend toward an extreme". They'd perhaps fast when they weren't otherwise required to; they might "stay awake all night (in prayer and supplication); do without meat and wine; separate from women; wear coarse wool and sackcloth (in mourning for the destruction of the Holy Temple, or in order deny their bodies come modicum of comfort); and dwell on mountainsides or withdraw to the desert (to meditate in seclusion)".

After all, it's hard living in society as the great preponderance of us do; to eat and drink this and that, time after time; and to commune with others the way we all do day after day and keep your mind on lofty goals.

Nonetheless, as Rambam makes clear, "the *only* reason they did any of those things was to heal themselves" that is, to offset harmful material tendencies, "or because everyone around them was becoming corrupt, and they perceived that they’d also become corrupt by staying in contact with them". In other words, some of them would indeed go to extremes once in a rare while -- but never from then on, with only the best of intentions, and always meaning to get back on course.

But some others misunderstood what they were doing (as so many do when it comes to striving for lofty goals that they themselves aren't suited for -- but that's beyond the subject at hand).

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

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

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"The Great Redemption" (69)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Remembrance, Ch. 3)

Ma'amar HaGeulah

-- "The Great Redemption", a reworking of Ramchal's "Ma'amar HaGeulah"

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman's series on www.torah.org

__________________________________________________

"The Great Redemption"

The Remembrance: Ch. 3

Alot will begin to unfold by this point. We're told that “flowers (will) appear on the earth” (Song of Songs 2:12), which means to say that Moshiach Ben Yoseph and Moshiach Ben David will begin to come full bloom. And all because of the aforementioned union of Tipheret and Malchut. In fact, that process will actually "become even more vigorous, and grow stronger and stronger" in the course of this third stage of The Remembrance. For the two Divine manifestations will share "a mighty longing and a powerful love" for each other, and "the Shechina would be singing to her Husband", if you will (see para. 33). At bottom what that means to say is that G-d's longing to redeem and cling to His people will be more and more manifest.

Indeed, the period of time when "everything will be in a perpetual state of unity", when "the lights will shine brighter and brighter by the minute," and when "the gladness (that all will enjoy) will reach heights that are simply impossible to depict" will begin -- but just begin -- to blossom. For "while the King will not have come out of the garden" yet, He’ll nonetheless "be strolling about in it" (Ibid.).

What has that to do with the two Messiahs, though? We'd need to "explain something very portentous that will happen in the end of days" (see para. 34) before we can answer that.

We're told that certain "sparks of holiness" that had been ejected from their Source in the heavens above before creation "will need to return to their (original) place before the exiled can gather together" (Ibid.). Now, this touches upon a very deep and recondite celestial phenomenon far beyond the subject at hand, but let's just offer this. Once, before the universe was created, there were some mighty entities up above that were banished for some recondite reasons which will need to be restored to their former glory in order for the great redemption to come about.

Moshiach Ben Yoseph will play a major role in that rather arcane procedure. His life will be threatened in the process, but he'll be helped from above, and his part in all this will bring about a greatly needed cosmic correction. It will also lead to the appearance of Moshiach ben David.

It won't be an easy thing for Moshiach Ben Yoseph to do, the truth be known, but once he manages to succeed at it, and to defeat the evil Armilus (who some say is King Gog, referred to earlier on, or his successor; and who others say is another evil ruler) in the process, he'll set off a slew of things that will bolster the redemption (see para's. 35-36).

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

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

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"The Great Redemption" (68)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

... AND in case anyone is wondering, this series should be finished in a week or two, when I'll go back to and finish R' Ashlag's work, please G-d.

"The Great Redemption" (67)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Four, Part 7)

“Spiritual Excellence” with Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Our Current Text: Moshe Maimonides's (Rambam's) “Eight Chapters”

-- Rabbi Feldman's on going series for Torah.org

**********************************************************

"Eight Chapters"

Chapter Four (Part 7)

After having just filled us in on the protocol to follow to rectify our character, Rambam then adds another dimension on to what he terms his "secret of healing". What that means to imply is that this most effective way to rectify our personalities somehow or another also gives something away. What it reveals in fact is an insight into the Jewish view of spiritual health, and it feeds into our discussion about piety. After all, one of the most important themes of this work is an explanation of just what "piety" is in a Jewish context (see Rambam's Introduction). But let's backtrack a bit to explain.

Recall that this chapter started off with the notion that a healthy Spirit is one that's "predisposed to doing good" deeds while an ill Spirit is "predisposed to doing bad" ones. And we learned that Rambam defines "good" deeds as ones that "lie midway between two extremes", and he thus instructs us to always strive for equibalance.

And he then advises us to have someone with an extreme disposition go to the opposite extreme again and again for a while, then have him or her move slowly backward to middle-ground. But this is where Rambam's healing "secret" is about to be revealed, and it touches on this conundrum we'd raised before.

Why did Rambam say that if we encountered someone who's "extravagant", that we’d have to enjoin him to act "stingily" in order to bring him to the more balanced state of being "generous" ... and that we'd have to have him do that *more often* than we'd have to encourage a stingy person to act extravagantly to eventually be wholesomely generous?

It comes to this. As we saw above, when Rambam terms someone "stingy" he means that he's austere (i.e., he's stingy with his *own* needs); when he terms someone "extravagant" he means that he's self-indulgent to a degree; and when he speaks of someone being "generous" Rambam means that that person's *somewhat* easygoing toward oneself.

Thus, Rambam is making a particular point. Being austere and self-denying is not only not balanced -- it's not Jewish. Our faith deems that too extreme. We Jews -- including the most pious among us -- are encouraged to have families; to engage in society; and to enjoy good, healthy (kosher) food and the like while being deeply religious. For Jewish spiritual excellence comes down to doing all that in a healthy, balanced way.

So, the "secret" comes to this: if we encounter someone who's out-and-out self-indulgent, then we’d want to encourage him to act somewhat austerely for a while, as we said above, because self-indulgence isn't the Jewish way. But we'd have to encourage him to go to that other extreme more often than we'd have to tell the austere person to be self-indulgent for two reasons. First, simply because even though austerity comes naturally to people who want to be pious, it's still easy enough for people in general to ease-off a bit; and second, because our people know intuitively that austerity isn't what's asked of us.

(Along the same lines, Rambam also adds that we’d do well to ask a cowardly person to practice being out-and-out *daring* for a longer time than we’d ask "a daring person to practice cowardice", since it's easier and more intuitive going from daring to cowardice -- or let's say, to healthy caution -- than it is to go from cowardice to daring.)

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

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

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"The Great Redemption" (66)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Remembrance, Ch. 2)

Ma'amar HaGeulah

-- "The Great Redemption", a reworking of Ramchal's "Ma'amar HaGeulah"

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman's series on www.torah.org

__________________________________________________

"The Great Redemption"

The Remembrance: Ch. 2

We're taught here that Tipheret -- which is a far loftier sephira than the ones we've been discussing so far -- will begin to descend and come into play in the course of The Remembrance. In fact, that's the phenomenon that will define this second stage of it.

Recall that we'd said that the less-lofty sephira Yesod would have descended in the course of The Visitation, which would serve as the high point of that era. So the fact that *Tipheret* would now descend and "reveal itself to the Shechina" as well, as Ramchal puts it, corroborates his statement here that "everything will (begin to) be manifest ... rather than hidden (as it had been in The Visitation)" by this point (see para. 25).

As such, the plot will begin to thicken, as the expression goes, and redemption will start to hatch. But only start.

Nonetheless, our people will begin to rise up out of exile by that point, "The Shechina and the King (i.e., Moshiach Ben David) will ... abide in the eternal dwelling-place", "The Divine Chariot will appear", we'll "start to arise and leave the exile with the Moshiach at our lead", our enemies "and their ministering angels will be crushed, cut down, and demolished" and all our political "tribulations will thus cease", and "all the imperfections that the exile had brought about will be emended several times over" (ibid.). So a lot will begin to happen by then.

But that won't be the end of the story by any means, as we'll see. In any event, this stage will only come about with the input of Tipheret as we indicated above, so let's explain the significance of that.

We're taught that "all the sephira-levels that G-d created were (originally) arranged in order, with one under the other. And everything’s in place (ideally) when the more extraneous sephira-levels are below the more exalted ones and are subservient to them" (see para. 26). "But everything was damaged" and all that changed when "the husk rebelled against its Master"; and as a consequence, "the sephirot were no longer joined together, and the Divine Flow diminished" (ibid.), which had terrible, sweeping earthly consequences.

Nonetheless we're assured, there'll come a point when "everything will be inexorably linked to everything else" once again. In fact, "all the Supernal Luminaries will conjoin and attach to each other then, all their offshoots will reattach to their roots and join together", and "everything will be a single, tightly bound entity" once more (ibid.).

Now, the sephirot that will play a major role in all that will be Tipheret, which is the one under discussion, and Malchut (i.e., the Shechina). The point is that Tipheret will help amend Malchut (ibid.).

For, given that "all of existence and all created beings ... emanate downward from *Tipheret*", once it comes into play, "the Shechina (i.e. Malchut) will ... return, and connect everything" together once again (see para. 27). And that's the behind-the-scenes drama that will play itself out in this stage of The Remembrance.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

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

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"The Great Redemption" (65)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"The Great Redemption" (64)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"The Great Redemption" (63)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Remembrance, Ch. 1)

Ma'amar HaGeulah

-- "The Great Redemption", a reworking of Ramchal's "Ma'amar HaGeulah"

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman's series on www.torah.org

__________________________________________________

"The Great Redemption"

The Remembrance: Ch. 1

The Remembrance will be more comprehensive than The Visitation and will play itself out in fifteen stages. Let's recap Ramchal's layout of The Visitation, though, before we go on, and see how it will lead to The Remembrance since the two phases are interconnected.

The first thing The Visitation will accomplish would be to "emend the first imperfection of the exile, which was the hiding of the Divine countenance and the dimming of the light" (see para. 24). That is, it will see to it that the Shechina be hoisted up out of the dust of exile, and that the lengthy and arduous process of reconnecting the Divine Luminaries begins.

But that will only start when, "the Tzaddik (i.e., the sephirah of Yesod) will descend and conjoin with Malchut (i.e., the Shechina)", its partner in the redemption process. And when the Shechina will "derive the ability and wherewithal to rise up out of the dust" (ibid.) as a result.

The many souls "that (had been) stuck in darkness" for the longest time we'd cited before "will be enstrengthened as well and will escape" then, thanks to Moshiach Ben Yoseph (who'll foreshadow the ultimate Moshiach). And then "the Moshiach" that is, Moshiach Ben David, "will rectify himself and get ready to be the redeemer". That will be followed by the first stage of The Remembrance, when our people begin to "desire, love, and be faithful to their shepherd to a very great degree" (ibid.), as we'd indicated.

The point is that once we start to sense the Moshiach's presence in our midst and begin to understand that the great redemption is upon us, once the souls sequestered in darkness for so very long come to the fore, and once G-d's Presence begins to manifest itself more and more palpably as the Shechina dusts itself off and prepares to shine -- all that will "then bring about peace and tranquility" (ibid.) and set the stage for The Remembrance. Since it's the combination of our people readying itself for the Moshiach's arrival and its reveling in the sense of the Divine, in combination with Moshiach readying himself to assume his role, that's needed most to set it off.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

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

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"The Great Redemption" (62)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"The Great Redemption" (61)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Four, Part 6)

“Spiritual Excellence” with Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

Our Current Text: Moshe Maimonides's (Rambam's) “Eight Chapters”

-- Rabbi Feldman's on going series for Torah.org

**********************************************************

"Eight Chapters"

Chapter Four (Part 6)

There's long been a dispute as to which matters more when it comes to character: is it our "nature" or the way we were "nurtured" that makes us who we are? Rambam seems to contend (at this point, at least) that it's the latter. For as he put it, "no one is born with an inherently virtuous or flawed character"; indeed, "we’re clearly acclimated from childhood onward to behave the way our family and friends do". He'll expand upon this in the final chapter.

Among many others, there are two things to be underscored with this in mind for our purposes. First, that no one's perfect -- either perfectly good or perfectly bad, for that matter (a lesson most of us still have to take to heart). For we're each a complex and rich, alternately wretched and exquisite brew of this and that. And second, that we'd each do well to choose the sort of environment that would encourage us to be the best we can be. But since Rambam's subject at hand here is the importance of not being extreme, as we know, let's explore how he ties that in with the above.

He contends that given the fact that a lot goes into who we are, and that much goes on despite us or behind the scenes, it follows that we need to be on top of what might make us lean toward one extreme or another. And he suggests that it's likewise important for us to be sure to treat our Spirit (i.e., our personality) when it goes "off-kilter". How? Much the way we'd treat our bodies when they're somehow out of balance.

"For when the body goes off kilter, we first determine the direction it’s heading in," he says, that is, we try to get a sense as to just what's wrong with it; then we "deliberately reverse its course until it returns to equilibrium". So if, for example, we found that we were eating too much salty food and that our blood pressure was rising as a consequence, we'd need to do without extra salt.

But since we wouldn't do too well without salt altogether, we'd need to strive for a happy medium. As such, in Rambam's words, we should then "stop reversing its course", that is, we should *stop* cutting down on salt once our blood pressure is stabilized, and then "do whatever will keep it in balance" -- that's to say, that we'd then be wise to cut down on salt from then on but not eliminate it.

His point is that the same holds true when it comes to character improvement.

"Suppose, for example," he warns us, "we were to encounter someone who’s disposed toward allowing himself very little" -- who's too austere. Now, since this is such a "*serious* personal flaw", as he notes, "we wouldn’t order him to start being (merely) *generous*" and easygoing toward himself, since "that would be like treating someone overcome by heat with something lukewarm, which simply wouldn’t work". We'd need to have him plunge right into cold water.

So we'd first "have him practice being *extravagant*" or somewhat self-indulgent, "again and again ... until he’d have expunged his disposition" for austerity, and until "he'd become well-nigh extravagant". In other words, we'd have him *reverse course* from the start, and "tell him to be generous" or more easygoing with himself (but certainly not indulgent).

The rule is that we'd treat a serious personal flaw by having the person suffering from it *go to the opposite extreme* right then and there for a time, then we'd guide him slowly back toward the ideal middle-ground.

Along other lines, though, Rambam suggests that if "we were to encounter someone who's extravagant" -- which isn't quite as serious a personal flaw as austerity, as we depicted above -- "we’d have to enjoin him to act *stingily* again and again" to set him on course. But then Rambam makes a very telling point.

"But we wouldn’t have him act stingily as often as we’d have the other person act extravagantly." Why? What's the diference between the two cases? We'll soon see.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

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

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"The Great Redemption" (60)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Visitation, Ch. 6)

Ma'amar HaGeulah

-- "The Great Redemption", a reworking of Ramchal's "Ma'amar HaGeulah"

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman's series on www.torah.org

__________________________________________________

"The Great Redemption"

The Visitation: Ch. 6

The last thing to be done in the course of The Visitation, we're told, will be to prepare the world for the all-important Remembrance. That will involve getting Moshiach Ben David -- the ultimate redeemer -- ready for his role. Let's see what that's all about.

Near the beginning of this work Ramchal compared the redemption from Egypt to the ultimate, great one. And he said there that while the two redemptive experiences "have a lot in common, (nonetheless) the latter will be greater yet" (see para. 2).

Drawing on that analogy, he underscores the fact that there came a point in the Egyptian exile when “G-d heard (the Jewish Nation) groaning and ... remembered His covenant” (Exodus 2:24) with us. For "enough was enough" and it was time to set-off the exile. Now, Ramchal notes that the very next verse reads that “Moses had been tending ... flock” (Exodus 3:1) at that very same time off in the background, and he posits that the two verses are next to each other for a good reason.

For the point is that despite the horrors and repugnancies of the exile, Moses was "lurking" in the background near the end, ready to assume his role as redeemer or shepherd of the Jewish Nation when he was needed. And we're to know that that will be true of Moshiach Ben David, the final redeemer, as well. He too will prove to have been lurking in the background and to have been made ready for his mission..

As Ramchal put it, sooner or later somewhere "between the time of The Visitation and The Remembrance, the man who'll be adjudged (fit) to redeem (the Jewish Nation)" -- Moshiach Ben David -- "will be made eligible to be amended and readied for his task. And he’ll then be elevated to infinitely great heights." The implication of course is that he'll be elevated to great *spiritual* heights -- the sort that one would expect of the one who will inaugurate in the Messianic Era and The World to Come.

A "crown will begin to be fashioned for the Moshiach" at that point (see para. 23), which signifies the fact that he'd then be set to fulfill his ultimate raison d'être of being king-redeemer of the Jewish Nation. And G-d Almighty "will then crown him with the crown of His Glory" (ibid.), which alludes to a great and utterly sublime coronation. (Ramchal points to that when he identifies the Moshiach's crown with "the Yechida", the most sublime level of the soul.)

And it will then be "time for him to ... redeem (the Jewish Nation)" (ibid.), which will finally come about in full in the course of The Remembrance. So let's start to explore that.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

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

********************************
AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman's translation of "The Gates of Repentance" has been reissued at *at a discount*!
You can order it right now from here
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled
"Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal"

"The Great Redemption" (59)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"The Great Redemption" (58)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal