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

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"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 )

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