Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Rectified World, Ch. 4)

Ma'amar HaGeulah

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

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

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"The Great Redemption"

The Rectified World: Ch. 4

As we said, the side of impurity hates the whole idea of the forces of goodness reconnecting with each other and bringing about peace, and it does whatever it can to undo that. But it has its limitations -- thankfully. In fact, limitations and constrictions (as well as disorder) lie at the heart of unholiness, as we'll see and as we already learned (The Rectified World Ch. 1).

In any event and despite impurity's opposition, "everything will continue on with great happiness and love as the holy groupings grow stronger and establish their rule", because "they’ll be joined in their roots" (para. 64). That's to say that everything in the cosmos will be "home" again, so to speak, together again, and in place. And there'll be a great sense of joy, satisfaction, and sure growth as a consequence. For on even the highest, sublimest levels there's no place like "home" in the end.

But as we indicated, the forces of impurity will stew in anger over that, since "impurity is just the opposite". Rather than thrive when all parts are together again, it does best when there's separation and discord, and when "there’s no love, brotherhood, or unity ... whatsoever." "In fact," Ramchal adds, "only rifts and quarrels come about when (the forces of impurity) gather", much the way a dysfunctional family of immense and foreboding proportion would act. So, "wherever the peace of holiness is found, a war of impurity is found as well" to thwart it (Ibid.).

Fortunately though, and by Divine plan of course, "when holiness is at full strength", universal harmony "becomes much stronger", and "all of creation enjoys rest and tranquility" (para. 65). But that will be stopped for a while "when the husk darkens" the world, though it won't be stopped forever. An ironically “peaceful sword” (see Ta'anit 22B) will emerge when impurity grows too strong which will "overpower it and destroy it". "Everything will be tranquil and at rest" once again (para. 65), and "the world will be emended in great perfection" (para. 66).

Let's get back to the idea offered above that limitation, constrictions, and disorder lie at the heart of unholiness though, because it touches upon a fundamental truism about life. As Ramchal puts it, "Everything has boundaries from which it never deviates"; in fact, "boundaries are (so) important, (that) creation couldn’t exist without them" (para. 66). After all, if there weren't boundaries and order, and everything sort of sloshed into everything else instead, then in the end there'd be nothing left but a terrible pool of pandemonium. On the other hand, though, if everything was fixed in place forever and not allowed to free-float from time to time, then the cosmos would be stiff and lifeless. So there has to be a perfect balance of the two.

Now, because all that impurity wants to do "is to hold back the good", it "bolsters itself so as to shut off the light (of holiness)" and to have it "breach its boundaries" and come undone. That obviously threatens the balance we spoke of. But "in the end of days, when everything will return to a great (state of) emendation, those breaches will be undone" and there'll be order again. Nonetheless, holiness's boundaries "will be widened", and "all the Luminaries (i.e., the Sephirot) will draw very much closer to each other .... and there won’t be so much of a need for boundaries", since the Luminaries will have be drawn together just so (Ibid.). And that will result in the perfect blend needed.

At that point "the Luminaries will accomplish their tasks nearly all at once", the "capacity for peace would have become strong and joined everything into a single unit" as a result, and "the Luminaries will all work as one" (Ibid.) and in perfect harmony. "All the luminaries will shine very brightly" then (para. 67), in fact they'll "be as strong as they’d been before once the redemption comes about", they'll "irradiate revelation upon revelation, light after light, and the light will be very great and intense" (para. 69), and as the prophet put it, "G-d’s redeemed will return ... to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads ... and (all) sorrow and sighing will flee” (Isaiah 35:10) (para. 67).

We'll now touch upon the final esoteric themes Ramchal brings up to end this work.

(c) 2007 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org

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

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