"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Seven, Part 2)

“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

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"Eight Chapters"

Chapter Seven (Part 2)

First off, it's vitally important to know that belief in the fact of prophecy is fundamental to the Jewish Faith (see Rambam's comments to Mishna 10:1 in Sanhedrin, and Hilchot Teshuvah 3:8). After all, if we don't believe that humans are capable of communing with G-d and deciphering His intentions as the prophets did, then we obviously can't accept the veracity of the Torah which is rooted in prophecy and is the bedrock of Judaism (see "Guide to the Perplexed" 3:45).

And so we believe that the prophets were able to ascend upward and to then dwell in G-d's Presence (in ways we'll discuss later on), which would then enable them to descend back downward and impart G-d's intentions to us (see "Guide to the Perplexed" 1:15). While they could very well have done as much for their own spiritual edification or for the sake of other peoples' growth and betterment, which they did do often enough (see Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah 7:7), nonetheless that wasn't their primary role. The prophets were to prophesy to the Jewish people of their times and of the ages.

It's also important to realize that prophets served as vital links in the transmission of the Oral Tradition, as they were scholars as well (see Rambam's Introduction to Mishne Torah). In fact, the belief in the prophets' scholarliness was one of the things that set our understanding of prophecy apart from others'. For while other faiths believed in the reality of prophecy, among other things they held that anyone essentially good could be granted it out of the blue (see "Guide to the Perplexed" 2:32 as well as Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah 7:5). We contend though that a person needed to be far more than just essentially good.

Aside from being wise and learned, prophets needed to be even-tempered, healthy, idealistic, full of faith, and abstinent (see Rambam's Intro. to his commentary to the Mishna). They had to be of sound mind and imaginative, to have meditated on the secrets of the universe and of G-d, and they were to have been unaffected by thoughts of power, influence, honor, and esteem (see "Guide to the Perplexed" 2:36). So it's clear that they were exemplary people; but they weren't perfect, as we'll see.

Now, it's also important to know that there were degrees of prophecy, and that there was a prophetic process and protocol to follow.

(c) 2007 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Project Genesis

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

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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"

About R' Ashlag's Book

I had thought it would be best to put R' Ashleg's book into my own words (with long citations) rather than just let it stand as a tranalation with comments. But I scrapped the idea and am leaving the work as it stood originally, all 70 chapters.

Unless I work on something else of R' Ashlag's that will be the whole of Toras Rav Ashlag.

Da'at Tevunot (Section 1, Chapter 14)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

Pesach is coming, so ...

I'll be slowing down. I'll probably offer the next chapter of Da'at Tevunot and of Eight Chapters before Yom Tov, and little if anything at all during Chol Hamoed. Chag Kosher v'sameach.

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Rectified World, Ch. 7)

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 Rectified World: Ch. 7

To wrap up let's recall that Ramchal started this book with the following in the original. "Many mighty and prodigious things will have to transpire, and a lot of preparations will have to be made before the redemption can come about (para. 1)." And he went on from there to depict all that.

As we'd indicated early on (see Exile, Ch's 6-10), he described the genesis of the exile thusly: "(while) 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", nonetheless, "everything was damaged when the husk rebelled against its Master ... (and) the sephirot were no longer joined together, the Divine Flow diminished, and the Jewish Nation's abilities weakened and lessened" (para. 26), which then resulted in the exile.

He went on to say that the process will end in the following way: "All evil will be removed from the husk" with the Great Redemption, "and what's left will return to the service of holiness. Everyone will recognize that holiness is the true source of and master over all (by then) .... , and will willfully prostrate him- and herself to G-d .... because everyone will finally realize G-d for who He really is then, and they'll recall His name and ways" (Ibid.).

As a result, "everything will (come to) be inexorably linked to everything else. All the Supernal Luminaries will conjoin and attach to each other then, and all their offshoots will reattach to their roots and join together to where everything will be a single, tightly bound entity. Light will intensify more and more then, and every hour will bring its own blessings along with peace and joy .... (And) 'G-d will be one, and His name one'" (Ibid.). And that will be it.

We'll end our own treatment of this holy work with citations from the prophets Joel and Micha that set the scene as well.

"I (G-d) will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. And also upon the servants and the maidservants in those days will I pour out My spirit. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth .... (As) the awesome day of the L-rd comes" (from Joel 3: 1-5).

"Behold, in those days, and in that time, when I will bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, that I will also gather all nations, bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and enter into judgment with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have divided my land .... Behold, I will raise them from the place where you have sold them .... For the day of the L-rd is near in the valley of decision .... And you will know that I am the L-rd your G-d dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain .... Judah will remain for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation ... while the L-rd dwells in Zion" (from Joel 4: 1-21).

And finally, "The mountain of the House of the L-rd will be established in the top of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and people will flow to it. Many nations will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the L-rd and to the house of the G-d of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways (there), and we will walk in His paths; for Torah will go forth from Zion, and the word of the L-rd from Jerusalem ... They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor will they learn war any more. But they will sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none will make them afraid; for the mouth of the L-rd of hosts has spoken it ... I will make her who limps a remnant; and her who was cast off, a strong nation; and the L-rd will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forever" (from Micha 4:1-7).

We ourselves do so dream of the moment and ask G-d Almighty for it come upon us today!

(c) 2007 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"

Da'at Tevunot (Section 1, Chapter 13)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

"Eight Chapters" (Chapter Seven, Part 1)

“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 Seven (Part 1)

We're about to discuss what differentiated one prophet from another, and what set Moses apart from the lot of them. And we're going to do that in order to further explore the role that character plays in everyone's make-up -- even those of us on such lofty perches. But while Rambam doesn't delve into it in this work, it's important for us to see just how he explained what prophecy is, how someone came to assume that role, the place prophecy assumed in the Jewish Tradition, and more at this point.

For while Rambam did indeed discuss prophecy in the introduction to this work, and we ourselves raised a few tenuous questions about it there, we'll now need to discuss it in more detail.

As we'd pointed out, most people have heard of certain prophets aside from Moses, like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah; and many are even familiar with some of their more famous statements. Many have been enthralled by the spiritual heights the prophets undoubtedly reached when they declared for example, "I saw the L-rd sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the Temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each with six wings ... and one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the L-rd of hosts: the whole earth is full of His Glory" (Isaiah 6:1-3); "The L-rd of hosts will prepare for all the peoples a feast (in the end of days) ... and will destroy on this mountain the covering that is cast over all the people, and the veil that is spread over all the nations. For He will destroy death for ever; the L-rd G-d will wipe away tears from off all faces" (Isaiah 25:6-8); "The word of the L-rd came to Ezekiel ... and the hand of the L-rd was there upon him. And I looked (Ezekiel said), and, behold, a storm wind came out of the North, a great cloud, and a fire flaring up, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst of it ... came the likeness of four living creatures .... " (Ezekiel 1:1-5), and the like.

And who could fail to be impressed by the likes of Moses, to whom "G-d spoke ... face to face as a man speaks to his friend" (Exodus 33:11)?

In fact, we're told that there were many hundreds of thousands of prophets in the course of ancient Jewish history, both male and female. So, what sort of mortal could achieve such heights? And what would he or she had to have done to come to that? Let's see.

(c) 2007 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Project Genesis

(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"

Tanya Appendix: The Love and Fear of G-d

This theme comes up again and again in Tanya and it has all sorts of ramifications, so I thought I'd offer this for future reference

It can be found at ...

Sefer Tanya

Da'at Tevunot (Section 1, Chapter 12)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

Ma'amar HaGeulah (The Rectified World, 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 Rectified World: Ch. 6

Drawing to a close of this remarkable work, Ramchal now touches upon a couple of other extraordinary things that will come about at the Great Redemption.

Whereas while all the righteous Jewish leaders who'd preceded the advent of the Messianic era and had "rise(n) up to shepherd the Jewish Nation in the absence of the Moshichim" will certainly shine "like the stars forever" (Daniel 12:3), because the Schechina had been "engarbed within" them, other things will begin to unfold. The Schechina will begin to "break through and emerge with a great deal of strength" in the course of the Great Redemption, and will "surround the (two) Moshichim and encompass them" as well as sit "within them", and "the Jewish Nation will openly delight in Her gleam" (para. 75).

Moses will reappear to accompany the two Moshichim and to bask in that same light "and even more"; and “the earth will be full of the knowledge of G-d” (Isaiah 11:9) at last (Ibid.).

The Shechina will then unite with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's mystical traits of Kindness, Judgment, and Mercy, and thus "merge ... with the Patriarchs" themselves on some recondite level. And as a result, a great and comprehensive "emanation of light" will come about, and "the Shechina will be very strong. She'll exhibit a lot of glory, and (there'll be) great joy (in the world then,) the likes of which had never yet been experienced" (para. 77).

Ramchal then concludes The Great Redemption by saying, "I have thus explained the whole matter of the redemption to you outright, according to the order of emendations that will come about to complete the success of the Jewish Nation, as well as the emendation of the entire world (which will come about) through the emendation of the Divine Luminaries" (Ibid.).

And he ends with the short prayer, "May it be G-d’s will that this come about speedily and in our days", which he concludes with a resounding "Amen!" that we can't help but echo.

We'll wind up our study of this work next time with some review and offer some insights from the prophets.

(c) 2007 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"

Da'at Tevunot (Section 1, Chapter 11)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

Da’at Tevunot (Section 1, Chapter 10)

... can be found at ...

Toras Ramchal

Tanya: PROLOGUE TO PART THREE: Chapters 16-25

... has been completed and can be found at ...

Sefer Tanya