Ethics and Spiritual Excellence

The Path of the Just - Ch. 4 (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:28:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

Chapter Four - (Part 1)

In the end, the very best way to develop the sort of caution we’ve been talking about, Ramchal advises, is to delve into Torah. Because it will invariably point out what matters in life and what doesn’t, which will then inspire you to be cautious in your life-choices.

But Ramchal then makes a very astute point that has bearing on a lot of things having to do with how we’re to grow in our spirit. He asserts that while one person might be moved to change by one thing or another, someone else might be repelled by the very same thing, and vice versa -- and yet both would need to grow. So it’s obvious that we’d have to know what inspires us and what doesn’t if we’re to move ahead.

He says that there are three sorts of people over-all as far as spiritual yearnings are concerned: “those who fully understand (what matters most)”, “those of somewhat lesser understanding (than they)”, and “the great majority of people”; or, put simply, there are people in search of spiritual excellence indeed, there are also people not quite there but on the way, and there are some who are willing to settle for spiritual mediocrity but who could be inspired to do better if given the right impetus.

For the truth of the matter is that not everyone yearns for nearness to G- d or for a chance to dwell close to Him and to bask in His light forever. While we contend that everyone’s soul yearns to do that, since the soul originated in G-d’s Being and would love to “go back home” for good, the lower elements of one’s beings can actually be repelled by the thought. After all, an individual drawn to “wine, women, and song” his whole life, who is repulsed by the thought of praying for example for any amount of time or of contemplating loftier things, would be aghast at having to spend eternity in Heaven. Yet his soul would want to dwell there, in fact, and would want to know how to. So it should be encouraged to and nudged along (albeit tenderly and appropriately if it’s to be effective).

For Ramchal’s point here is that in fact anyone could be drawn toward goodness (if not out-and-out righteousness) if properly motivated. We would just need to be aware of what makes a person “tick” and use that to his soul’s best advantage.

As such, a more altruistic person would be motivated by high ideals, and should be offered them; someone less high-minded but good should be inspired by fine and correct points that would nonetheless be closer to the ground and less idealistic; and someone lesser-yet who could only be appealed to by more self-serving needs should be told about them. We’ll explore these three types and what motivates them in some detail in the following sections. The wise among us would pinpoint his or her own standing and act accordingly.

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

For any comments, questions or topic requests, please contact Rabbi Yaakov Feldman.

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The Path of the Just - Ch. 3 (Part 4)

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:11:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

Chapter Three - (Part 4)

Our inability to see the big picture and the truth in full is tantamount to our walking through a huge convoluted maze all the time.

As Ramchal evokes the image, the maze would be like the kind that was actually constructed hundreds of years ago by the wealthy for entertainment. Each one was comprised of “row after row of walls, with identical small paths between each one”. And the whole set-up was purposely put together “to confuse and confound” a participant who “couldn’t see … whether or not he was on one of the direct paths” since he’d “never entered into the maze before or reached the rotunda, its goal”.

The difference of course is that the participants in that maze would choose to play the game, while the maze that has come to be our way of living has chosen us, or so it seems.

Like the people in this maze game, we too never know what we’ll encounter, and we likewise hope against hope to escape failure (and injury) and to find our way out. For we also have never been through this before; and besides -- as Ramchal makes the point now -- we’re blinded by our yetzer harah and thus closed off to clarity and insight into our actions. For the yetzer harah baffles us all the time, it has us follow paths of false hope and faulty calculation, and it convinces us to squeeze our uneasy and square selves into round and awkward situations that threaten our very souls. But the truth is that there is a way out, as we’ll see.

Ramchal advises us to seek out the advice of someone “who would have already reached the rotunda himself (and) could see all the paths before him” and who would be able to pick out the right one for you to take. Only such a person -- only someone who had already managed to overcome his yetzer harah and to reach his full spiritual potential -- “could … say, ‘That's the path to take’”.

And the path those more experienced souls would invariably tell us to take, Ramchal offers, is this one: to “constantly, consistently ponder … (and) consider the true path according to the rules of the Torah you should take (in life). Then contemplate your actions and decide if they agree with that or not”. In other words, always take stock of your ways, as we were told at the beginning of our discussions of caution, and see if they conform to the truth or not as best as you can. And then affirm the right and stick to it, while steering clear of the wrong.

Do that, he assures us, and “you’ll find it easy to … set your ways straight.”

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

For any comments, questions or topic requests, please contact Rabbi Yaakov Feldman.

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The Path of the Just - Ch. 3 (Part 3)

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:04:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

Chapter Three - (Part 3)

Even though we’re advised to catch sight of what we do in order to set things right, that doesn’t mean to imply that we truly see things for what they are! In fact, our sages likened this world -- reality as we know it -- to night-time (Baba Metzia 83b), which Ramchal takes to mean that the world is mired in darkness. And as a result of that, he asserts, we simply don’t “see what’s in front of us” or understand what we’re looking at.

So we lose sight of the glorious fact that we were placed in this world to perfect our beings and to do as much good as we can (Adir Bamarom, pp. 458- 460), and we tend to flutter about here and there as a consequence.

Indeed, Ramchal says here that “the coarseness and materiality of this world” in fact “doesn’t allow you to notice the (ethical) stumbling blocks along the way” and has you “misinterpret things so that what’s actually bad seems to be good, and vice versa”. And all because we’ve become so ensnared by our yetzer harah that we’re incapable of making rational decisions. So we’d need the advice of those who are able to see things for what they are if we’re ever to grow.

We’ll return to that last point shortly; for now though it would do us well to see how Ramchal explains our “night-blindness” in more detail. He says elsewhere that G-d actually restricted our insights on purpose by creating us with our five senses (though we think that they are what we depend on for our insights in the first place!).

As he explains it, “the soul itself actually sees and hears everything” as it really is, “because it isn’t subject to the (influence of the) senses”. It easily sees what “impels everything from the inside-out”, which our five senses prevent us from doing. That’s why we misread signals, miss cues, and make wrong ethical decisions (Adir Bamarom, Ibid.).

That isn’t to imply though that that’s a universal phenomenon. For there are some rare individuals who do see things as they are -- people who “have been freed from this state of imprisonment and can see the truth for what it is, and who can advise others” about how to grow. They know very well that we were created for the higher purposes we’ve indicated and that most of us only see the outer reaches of things. And they also know what has us make the sort of mistakes we make as a consequence of that (Adir Bamarom, Ibid.). Hence, we should seek them out and ask their advice.

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

For any comments, questions or topic requests, please contact Rabbi Yaakov Feldman.

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The Path of the Just - Ch. 3 (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:25:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

Chapter Three - (Part 2)

Ramchal offers that we should “sift through and analyze our ways each and every day” in serious reflection much the way successful business-people regularly “evaluate their business practices” in order “to be sure they don’t suffer loss”. That’s to say that we should “take stock” of ourselves each and every day in order to see just where we’re successful and where not, where we’re in a rut and where we’re on the wing.

But let’s emphasize that we’re expected to do more than cast sporadic glances at what we do. Instead, we’re to reflect deeply -- to lay each move and motivation under bright light; look at it top, side, and underside; to draw it closer in to see it anew, perhaps a degree or two higher-up than we’d ordinarily took at it, or close enough to us to catch a whiff of it, if you will. And we’re to then adjudge its worth and either accept or reject it.

The truth of the matter is that if you don’t actually ponder your ways and strive for such insight and self-understanding it “will never come your way” and “you’ll linger in the dark” instead -- oblivious, and awash in “a fog and in utter darkness”, as Ramchal had put it (Derech Eitz Chaim p. 137). For if we were in fact self-aware and sensitive to what urges us on, we wouldn’t sin, Ramchal assures us there; as that sort of “knowledge boosts the soul” on one hand, and dampens the yetzer harah on the other.

He also makes the point that not only should we reflect upon what we do and what drives us, but also on our very beings. He suggests that we set aside time each and every day to dwell upon the sort of profound existential questions that the great ones do, like, “Who am I?”, “Why am I in this world?”, “What does G-d Almighty require of me?”, and “What’s expected of me in the end?” For, it’s very difficult to grow in your spirit if you don’t do that (Ibid.).

Do all that regularly, that is, “delve deeply into all of your actions and examine all your ways” the ways we spoke of, and you’ll be successfully cautious; and you’ll eventually “leave yourself without any bad habits and traits, or … sins or transgressions”. For a circumspect soul would be leery of making the same mistakes again. Don’t follow through on this, though, and you’ll find yourself “bound and imprisoned” by your mistakes.

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

For any comments, questions or topic requests, please contact Rabbi Yaakov Feldman.

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The Path of the Just - Ch. 3 (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:20:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

Chapter Three - (Part 1)

Not only would we have to be aware of a number of things to acquire the trait of caution as we’d indicated, but we would also need to be conscious of our own inner motivations. For if we’d hope to achieve spiritual excellence we’d need to know the depths of our heart.

For the human heart is awash with contradiction: there are bright, clean and pious corners there, but there are also some quite murky, smarmy and unholy ones. But the truth of the matter is that as a whole the human heart is an untidy brew of all of that, which should be unsettling.

In any event, Ramchal tells us here that if “you want to master yourself, you will need to involve yourself in two kinds of self-analysis,” first “a consideration of what is the true good you are to choose, and the true bad from which you should flee,” and the second is “a consideration of your own actions to determine whether they are good or bad” -- which is all quite reasonable. Since it simply points out that we’d be expected to weed out the bad from the good.

And he adds the following in its wake: “Do nothing without (first) considering it in light of this notion” that is, without bearing in mind whether what you’re about to do is a good and lofty thing, and should be followed through on, or if it’s wrong and should be abandoned.

Now, that would obviously call for a lot of analysis and forethought, both as to the nature of the thing we’re about to do along with reflection on whether the Torah would deem it right or wrong (since we’re to only factor in Torah-based moral values). But it’s here that Ramchal adds another point that should stop us cold.

He warns us that we should not only be weeding out the obviously bad things we do -- but that we should also be “inspecting and observing” the “good ones”, to see “if there is any underlying motivation that is not good, or if there is any part-bad that you might be forced to extricate and remove”, given the multi-faceted makeup of the human heart we spoke of.

For even the grandest deeds can be tinged with self-interest; as everything we do is riddled with hidden under-moorings. We might contribute a great deal of money to good causes in the hope of being known as a philanthropist, or we might pray with special fervor in the hope of being seen as “really religious” by our neighbors.

At bottom it comes to this: be honest with yourself (as you must to become pious) and you’ll come upon a lot you’ll like and a lot you won’t. Sigh deeply, admit to your humanity, and isolate the best to offer to G-d.

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

For any comments, questions or topic requests, please contact Rabbi Yaakov Feldman.

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The Path of the Just - Ch. 2 (Part 4)

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:15:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

Chapter Two - (Part 4)

It’s not easy coming upon caution, though. For not only does it call for a lot of self-awareness, forethought, concern and determination … there’s also a hitch attached to it. It’s the fact that even if we do our level best to be as cautious as we can and avoid all the traps of the yetzer harah, we’re still-and-all not likely to succeed -- “without G-d’s help” that is, as Ramchal adds.

That’s because while some have indeed come to be quite pious and even holy, such individuals are rare. For as we’ll see in the very last chapter of The Path of the Just, becoming holy (and pious, too) is essentially a supernatural phenomenon; for it “begins in striving and ends in being given as a gift. That is to say, it’s initiated by your sanctifying yourself and concludes with your being sanctified” by G-d.

And that’s also true of lesser levels of achievement like caution, because it calls for transcending your baser instincts. For, “the yetzer harah is mighty”, as Ramchal puts it. It long ago figured you out and knows how to trip you; and it has the uncanny ability to have you agree with it again and again, even though you know you’ll regret it later.

Nonetheless if you do in fact make the effort to be on top of your choices, G-d will “save you from the yetzer harah” and grant you caution, because He wants you to draw close to Him. But if you don’t try, “G-d will certainly not oversee your doings” and will allow you to falter. “After all”, as Ramchal worded it, “if you will not have compassion upon yourself, who will?”

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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The Path of the Just - Ch. 2 (Part 3)

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:01:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

Chapter Two - (Part 3)

Most of us today are rather pleased to be busy and take pride in how much we can juggle. In fact the sort of adrenaline rush that comes with managing to double-, triple-, and quadruple-task that we strive for today is a sort of modern seventh-heaven. Some even encourage that, offering that being busy allows you to forget about your troubles and to lose yourself to the task at hand.

That would be fine if we’d fulfill our life’s mission by forgetting ourselves and if our sense of what’s expected of us didn’t matter, or if we were only granted life so as to be productive. But Ramchal, like the great preponderance of the sages, doesn’t think that’s true at all. As we’d depicted it before, he contends that we’re expected to change ourselves for the better and to amend the world. And that sometimes calls for quieting down and dwelling on the basics.

For as he words it, “relentlessly burdening yourself with tasks so that you haven't the time to reflect upon or consider where you’re heading” which so many of us are guilty of,” is in fact one of the devices and guiles of the yetzer harah” rather than a good thing.

Interestingly enough, though, he adds the insight that the yetzer harah knows that ”if you were to concentrate upon your (wrongful) ways for just an instant that you would certainly repent of them, and a strong regret would grow within you that would lead you to utterly abandon your sins”. That means to say that just given the chance to slow down, to dwell upon self, and to refocus upon goals would automatically have us turn a new leaf and improve ourselves.

Because deep within our beings is a draw to G-d that cannot be denied, but which is covered-over by this, that, and so much else that vies for our attention, and distracts the soul from the task at hand.

So the only way you can escape from all that would be to foster the trait of caution, by setting aside time to reflect upon yourself and your ways.

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

For any comments, questions or topic requests, please contact Rabbi Yaakov Feldman.

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The Path of the Just - Ch. 2 (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:21:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

Chapter Two - (Part 2)

We’d need to be on top of a number of things if we’re ever to be “cautious” as we’re first advised to be, in the process of drawing close to G-d. For one thing, each one of us would have to be “conscious and aware of whether his actions” and the sorts of methods he uses to do things “are for the good or not” -- that is, whether they’re for the good of our spiritual standing or bad for it.

Of course, this harkens back to the idea we’d cited that, unlike Adam and Eve before their fatal error, we’re forced to rely on our rational minds, and we have to be attentive and alert in order to avoid sin. So it would do us well to first ponder and weigh, and then do -- with fresh dedication.

Ramchal’s contention is that if a person isn’t aware of what he’s doing and how he does things that he’d be “abandoning his soul to the threat of destruction” and could be said to be “going about blindly … in pitch black”, since he’d be depending on habit or circumstance rather than on insight and clarity.

In fact, he continues, it would only make sense to do whatever we can to “rescue ourselves” from spiritual harm and self-sabotage “by running away from what would destroy our soul”. After all, don’t “animals and beasts just naturally watch out for themselves by fleeing from things that are likely to threaten them”? So, should we do no less ourselves if our spiritual well-being is threatened?

The answer of course is that we’d be foolish to go through life without giving thought to whether what we’re doing is right or wrong if our whole raison d’être is to be the best people we can be so as to draw close to G- d, as He wants us to. But the truth is that like the people in the prophet Jeremiah’s time, “each one of (us) turns about in his course like a horse rushing headlong into battle" (Jeremiah 8:6) without giving thought to the consequences of our actions.

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

For any comments, questions or topic requests, please contact Rabbi Yaakov Feldman.

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The Path of the Just - Ch. 2 (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:45:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

Chapter Two - (Part 1)

Ramchal offers us an evocative image in another work of human nature before Adam and Eve’s terrible blunder in the Garden of Eden that has bearing on both this chapter of The Path of the Just and the next one.

He says that Adam and Eve then “functioned by means of an exalted Light that came (their) way moment by moment”, rather than by their own instincts or thoughts. In fact, “everything (they) did was based on what they derived” from that Light (Adir Bamarom pp. 414-415), it was so all- encompassing and dependable. (This was in fact alluded to by the statement that Adam and Eve were dressed in “garments of light” in the Garden of Eden [Zohar 1, 36b]).

Ramchal’s point, though, is that all of that ended once they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They then had to depend on their rational minds to get by. But as everyone knows, of course, people often don’t use their minds when making decisions … and there’s the rub.

Here’s how Ramchal further lays out the dynamic. It seems that Adam and Eve were forced from then on to “keep a watchful eye over everything” they did, and to “always think about what (they) were doing” rather than depend on the sort of Divine guidance that had done them so well before. And they had to “constantly worry and … be on guard” (Adir Bamarom, Ibid.) from then on to be sure they did the right thing.

All that came about as a direct consequence of that sin. That’s why we too have to think carefully about everything we do.

Another consequence of it was the fact that should we, their descendants, sin seriously and frequently, we’d find that our “rational minds would … become obscured” (Adir Bamarom, p. 448) -- that is, that we’d become irrational and impulse-driven.

Now of course most of us aren’t seriously or habitually sinful, so we aren’t always irrational and impulse-driven. But the implication is of course that the more sinful we are, the more irrational and impulse-driven we tend to be.

Ramchal then adds -- and quite ominously -- that the sort of murkiness of the rational mind we tend to suffer with when we sin is “the single worst flaw” a soul could experience (Adir Bamarom, ibid.). In fact, we’d actually “never sin” if our rational minds were always in full flower (Adir Bamarom, p. 450), since we’re “mostly driven by our minds” (Klach Pitchei Chochma 124).

And so we’re “obliged … to always pay attention” to what we do, because conscious deliberation “strengthens the soul and keeps the yetzer harah away from it” (Derech Eitz Chaim).

We’ll soon see how much of a role this need to remain aware of our actions and to act consciously and deliberately plays in our spiritual goals.

(Many wonder, by the way, why Ramchal didn’t actually begin this discourse with a discussion of the place of Torah study in all this, since the statement that serves as this book’s motto indicates that “Torah study leads to caution”, the subject at hand. Some would say that it’s because Torah study comes up several times in this work anyway, so there’s no need to dwell on it here. And others say that Torah study is the underpinning of everything we do to serve G-d anyway and actually leads to all the good traits Ramchal will be discussing, so discussing it would superfluous. But perhaps a better explanation is the one that Ramchal himself offered elsewhere that it’s the sort of conscious attentiveness that goes into Torah study that easily leads one to caution [Ma’amar Vichuach HaChacham v’haChasssid]).

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

For any comments, questions or topic requests, please contact Rabbi Yaakov Feldman.

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The Path of the Just - Ch. 1 (Part 5)

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:22:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

Chapter One - (Part 5)

Now that we understand “the preciousness of the Divine service granted us”, Ramchal emphasizes, as well as the fact that it alone is “the means to bring us to true wholeness” and that without it “we would attain nothing” spiritually, we can appreciate just how important it is to take the mitzvah-system seriously.

After all, “a goal is only reached by the combined power of the means used to reach it” -- that’s to say, our spiritual goal depends on the number and quality of mitzvot we fulfill. So it only makes sense for us to do our best, since each notch downward or upward would matter a great deal.

Thanks to the mitzvah-system, “all worlds (can) be thoroughly rectified” -- both our inner worlds and the world at large, as Ramchal indicates elsewhere. For that could only come about when “all 613 roots of (our) soul are perfected through the 613 … mitzvot”, since our souls, the mitzvot, and the world at large are all bound together. And everything we do here affects both ourselves and everything else (Adir Bamarom, pp. 186- 187).

Hence it’s clear that “we must fulfill the mitzvot and our service to G-d in a most precise manner -- in as precise a manner as we would weigh gold or pearls if we were jewelers, because of their great value”. Since “they result in true wholeness and in the eternal, incomparable preciousness” that is closeness to G-d.

Ramchal concludes this first chapter with the statement that since it has “become clear to us that the main purpose of our having been placed in this world was to observe mitzvot, serve G-d, and to withstand (the) spiritual trials” we’re faced with all the time, it’s imperative that we direct everything we do to G-d, and that “that there be no goal … other than getting closer to Him and eradicating the barriers that separate (us) from Him” (also see Derech Hashem 1:4).

Indeed, haven’t we been told that “if you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, then out of all the nations you will be My treasured possession. For though the whole earth is Mine, you will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5-6)? Weren’t we enjoined to “acknowledge Him in all (our) ways” (Proverbs 3:6), through everything we do? And haven’t we ourselves declared that “I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine” (Song of Songs 6:3) in our declarations of loyalty to G-d?

But in order to achieve all that we’d need to follow a clear and well- structured plan that would take us through the steps, define each objective, warn us about what to watch out for, and grant us insight into the hazards to avoid.

The plan Ramchal uses is based on Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yaer’s penetrating statement cited in the introduction to the effect that “Torah study leads to caution, caution leads to enthusiasm, enthusiasm leads to innocence, innocence leads to abstinence, abstinence leads to purity, purity leads to piety, piety leads to modesty, modesty leads to fear of sin, fear of sin leads to holiness, holiness leads to Divine inspiration, and Divine inspiration leads to the resurrection of the dead” (Avoda Zarah 20B), which we’ll follow step by step. It will prove to be enlightening, and to be rooted in wisdom and profound insight into human capacity.

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

For any comments, questions or topic requests, please contact Rabbi Yaakov Feldman.

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The Path of the Just - Ch. 1 (Part 4)

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:26:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

Chapter One - (Part 4)

“The point is this,” Ramchal puts it quite succinctly: “We were not created for our situation here in this world” as we tend to think, “but rather for that in the World to Come.” For at bottom “our situation here”, in this world, is merely “the means to attain the one due us in the World to Come”, which is actually “our goal.”

He then cites several statements from our sages in fact that “liken this world to a place and time of preparation, and the next world to one of rest and the ingesting of the already-prepared” as he puts it.

We’re told for example that "this world is like a vestibule to the World to Come …” and that we’re to thus “prepare (ourselves) in the ‘vestibule’ to be able to enter the Banquet Hall" that is the World to Come, our ultimate goal (Pirkei Avot 4:16). It’s said that "today”, this world, was created, “to do them (the mitzvot) and tomorrow” that is, the World to Come, was created “to receive the reward for them" (Eruvin 22a). It’s taught that only "one who struggles on the Eve of the Shabbat”, that is, in this world, “will ‘eat’ on Shabbat”, i.e., will delight in the World to Come (Avodah Zara 3a). And it’s said that "this world is like the shoreline” that the traveler sets out from “and the World to Come is like the sea" which is his aim (Kohelet Rabbah 1).

Now, some might argue otherwise and say that we were indeed created for our situation in this world, however short-lived it is, but Ramchal disagrees. How could anyone ever think that -- after all, “what is our life here in this world? For who is truly happy or tranquil in this world?” he points out. “We suffer from all sorts of woes, illnesses, pains and inconveniences” in this life, and “after all that (all there is, is) death”, or so it seems to those who’d think we were created for this world alone. And not only is that so, but it’s likewise true that “not one in a thousand finds that the world fills him with true contentment or peace-of- mind. For even if that rare individual were to live to one-hundred, he would nonetheless eventually be taken away from the world”, and find himself back at step one -- utter annihilation and apparent purposelessness.

So we were clearly created for our situation in the World to Come.

Ramchal then offers a tantalizing piece of evidence. “If in fact the purpose of our life was to meet the needs of this world, then it wouldn’t have been necessary for G-d to have breathed into us a soul as exalted and distinguished” as the one we have, which is “greater than the angels themselves” he reveals (see Adir Bamarom pp. 261-262). Understand of course that the “soul” spoken of here isn’t the life-force that all animate beings have, but rather our immortal numinous spirits (see Derech Hashem 3:1).

“Nor would G-d have placed within us a soul which finds no gratification in the things of this world” if our goal was this world alone, he continues. For the sages likened our circumstances here to that of “a city- dweller who married a princess and who, though he may bring her the best in the world, could never impress her for, after all, she is a princess” (Kohelet Rabbah 6:7). For even if you were to supply the soul “with all of the pleasures of the world, it would be unfazed by them” Ramchal says since “it’s one of the celestials", and thus it knows the delights of the World to Come that are so much greater than those of this world (see Da’at Tevunot 70).

Hence it follows that “the sole purpose of our creation was to be our situation in the World to Come.” And that we were granted the lofty soul we have because it alone “is fitting for the Divine service by means of which we can accrue (so exalted) a reward” (see Da’at Tevunot 71 and Derech Hashem 1:3; also see Adir Bamarom pp. 122-123 and Iggrot Pitchei Chochma v’Da’at for more on the complex and absorbing connection between body and soul)

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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The Path of the Just - Ch. 1 (Part 3)

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:42:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

Chapter One - (Part 3)

We’re then told something quite extraordinary: that we “stand in the midst of a great balance” in this life. In fact, it’s a terribly consequential one at that, since both our own future and the world’s will be determined by what we do in the end. And it could be said to entail the greatest existential trial imaginable, for it hinges on our choice of what matters most to us.

It comes down to this. “Should we be attracted to the world and distanced from our Creator” as so many of us are, then “both we and the world with us would be harmed” in the process. On the other hand, “if we would master ourselves and clutch onto our Creator, and make use of the world's things to help us in our Divine service”, then “both we and the world with us will be elevated” in the end.

That is, should we opt for spiritual excellence and reject spiritual mediocrity, both we and all we come in contact with will excel, whereas if we snub spiritual excellence and settle instead for spiritual mediocrity, then we and everything else will ultimately be lackluster and have failed.

How daunting and breathtaking a notion that is! For it signifies that G-d has placed humankind at the very center of the universe and lays the responsibility for the successful workings of the world on our shoulders alone. (Don’t dare scoff at such a world view, dear reader, and cast it aside as a vestige of medieval anthropocentric -- human-centered -- thought. For who among us today who takes “global warming” seriously doesn’t lay the blame at the foot of humankind alone!)

The point is that we have it within us to become pious indeed and to thus elevate the world in our wake; or to descend into wrongfulness and sin, and take the world down with us -- we’re that powerful.

Ramchal describes elsewhere what life would be like should humanity incline toward goodness and piety. As he puts it, people would “cling onto wisdom and serve their Creator", and as a consequence of that, "the truth would be forthright and clear-cut,” and “the wrongful would be pursued and overcome, and deception would be undone." It’s also true that "no one would serve anyone or anything but G-d" and “only good qualities would exist", while "wrongful ones would be rejected and despised." And as a result, "tranquility and quietude will prevail, and there'll no longer be tribulation, pain, or harm. And there’ll come a point when “G-d will openly display His Glory to the world, and He'll rejoice in His handiwork as His handiwork rejoices in Him."

Sad to say, that’s not at all the world we know of, which Ramchal represents as one in which we’re all “awash in desires"; where the great majority of us "despise wisdom and are far removed from it"; where "very, very few if any" of us "tend to serve G-d"; where "truth has been dashed to the ground, wrongdoing is reinforced and succeeds, and where there's more and more deception and misjudgment".

And as a consequence, "there's hardly any quietude and no tranquility" and "a lot of tribulation and harm" prevails instead. For indeed as we all sense for ourselves, "G-d is hiding His Glory from the world" now, "and everything seems to go about as if by chance and entrusted to the laws of nature" alone. "G-d doesn't (seem to) rejoice in His handiwork, mankind doesn't rejoice in Him, and no one even recognizes or knows what it means for all of creation to rejoice before its Creator." As such "the wrongful are powerful while the good are subordinate" (Derech Hashem 2:8).

But we can turn that all around. For as Ramchal puts it in another work, we “are both the initiators of repair as well as the (potential) repaired” thanks to our efforts. For if instead of “following the dictates of (our) eyes and too-human hearts and descending, we were to follow “the ways of the Torah and its mitzvot”, our souls would ascend and the world would, too (Da’at Tevunot 78).

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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The Path of the Just - Ch. 1 (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:43:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

Chapter One - (Part 2)

“It’s only fitting that you toil and strive” Ramchal asserts, “to be worthy of this good” -- of drawing close to G-d, since it’s so essential. And that we do what we can “to clutch onto Him with the specific things that will enable (each one of us) to do this” -- the mitzvot, which are so fundamentally potent.

Ramchal brings some of the dynamism of the mitzvah-system to light in other works. One of the things he points out is this ironical aspect of the mitzvot. “Even though humanity is mired in physicality” day after day, moment by moment, he points out, we can paradoxically reach our full potential “through (our) physicality and corporeality” (Derech Hashem 1:4) by using the mitzvah-system. For while mitzvot are mostly rooted in material things they nonetheless make contact with Heaven and allow us to as well.

For we can elevate our very mundane (though compelling) appetite for food to a point of holiness by eating only kosher things, by dedicating our favorite foods for Shabbat and Yom Tov meals, for example, rather than eat haphazardly and with no other end in mind than to gulp down food. And along the same lines, we can likewise elevate our wardrobe by avoiding Sha’atnez (See Leviticus 19:19), exalt our dinner table by discussing Torah in the course of a meal, and the like.

And that way our initial “shortcoming will come to be an asset” in the end (Derech Hashem 1:4), which means to say that our very human need to eat, etc. will ultimately enable us to transcend ourselves. And we’ll thus be able to “luxuriate in the hidden light” of G-d’s presence (Da’at Tevunot 40) thanks to our very basic, animal needs. For as we see, despite their physical base, mitzvot “induce G-d’s holiness and salutary light” downward, and thus act as “the means of (our) achieving true goodness” (Ma’amar HaIkkurim).

So it would only make sense that we’d commit ourselves to the mitzvah- system and never swerve. Yet we do veer off-course, despite the great good we’d miss in the process and regardless of our determination. Why?

For one thing, as Ramchal puts it, because despite the glorious fact that we’d just been informed of the very best way to draw close to G-d Almighty and to fulfill our life-mission, and notwithstanding the certainty that we have it within us to withstand pitfalls, the truth of the matter is that G- d has nonetheless “placed mankind in a situation where there are many things to hinder closeness to Him”. For we “have been placed in the midst of a mighty battle, wherein all worldly happenstances … are trials” and tests of our determination.

For we’re tempted by this and that, thrown off-course by one situation or another, and almost daily accosted by circumstances that seem to dare us to try to be pious despite them. So what are we to do given that?

For one thing it would help us to know, as Ramchal put it elsewhere, that “certain things can only be resolved by tribulation” (Derech Hashem 2:3). That’s to say that sometimes our mettle is purposely tested and we’re provoked to overcome a moral dilemma; but we’re to know that we’d deliberately been placed in that situation because our triumph will do us a world of good (Klallim Rishonim 34).

In any event, Ramchal continues here, “you will only be … worthy of clutching onto your Creator if you are truly a warrior, victorious in your battles from all sides”, and you manage to overcome your obstacles to mitzvah-observance.

Do that and you will “go from the ‘vestibule’ of this world” -- as our life-experience is termed, since at bottom this too-short life serves as an entrée to eternity -- and you’ll enter “ into the ‘palace’ of the World to Come” where you’ll be “enlightened by the Light of Life”, G-d Himself. And with that perspective in mind we’re far more likely to succeed.

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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The Path of the Just - Ch. 1 (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:01:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

Chapter One - (Part 1)

When read caringly, attentively, and reverently this first chapter of The Path of the Just is capable of setting us right from the first and of bringing us up close to G-d, it’s that invigorating. For it’s a disclosure outright of so much of what matters most in our lives, of our place in the universe, and of what we’re capable of in the end. In fact, many have set it to memory while others make a point of reading it again and again. Let us now approach it and do our best to be guided by its great light.

Its initial point is that what’s most important if we’re ever to achieve spiritual excellence -- in fact, “the very foundation of piety, and the root of thorough Divine service” as Ramchal words it -- “is that our duty in the world … becomes clear and self-evident” to us. That’s to say, that we understand exactly what we’re here to do, and that we know just what we’re to “direct (all) our sights and proclivities towards” just so we can do it.

After all, if we didn’t know what’s expected of us we could never, ever carry it out and we’d spend our lives doing everything but.

(Known only to his more dedicated enthusiasts, Ramchal actually wrote a book on logic, known as Sefer HaHigayon. As he makes this point there in Ch. 23, it’s essential to know where we’re driving beforehand simply because “we can only agree on how to reach a goal after we know what it is.” And that’s certainly true of our ultimate life-goal.)

But just what is our life-goal? Well, as Ramchal puts it in the name of our sages so stunningly and bluntly, “we were created” for no other reason than to “delight in G-d and enjoy the radiance of His Divine presence.”

Mull over that for a while if you will. For what it says is that we were created to experience G-d up close, to bask in His light if you will!

As we’re assured that there’ll indeed be a time when this “true delight”, as Ramchal terms it, this “greatest pleasure of all”, will come our way. For at a certain point, there “will be no more impediments” and “the greatest of joys a soul could experience” will come about indeed (Klach Pitchei Chochma 4) and go on forever (Assara Orot).

The “catch” though, as we’d say, is that this sublime encounter will not take place in the here-and-now but rather in “the World to Come”, which was specifically “created, readied and prepared for just such a pleasure”, unlike our own world where no one could endure such a phenomenon.

In any event, “the road that will take us to our desired destination” -- this eternal encounter with the Divine -- is this world. So the point is that we were placed here just so as to set out to achieve that. And we’re likewise taught here that “the means to bring (us) to this goal are the mitzvot that G-d has commanded” which can only be fulfilled in this world. (So rather than serving as mere “good deeds” as many think, or as a prosaic list of “Jewish practices” or rituals, mitzvot actually act as agents of revelation, as the very tools to bring on an encounter with G-d Almighty!)

So in sum, “that’s why we were placed in this world in the first place: so that we might reach the place set for us -- the World to Come-- by the use of the means prepared for that task”, the mitzvot. For only after having done that will, “we … bask in the good we will have acquired through these means.”

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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The Path of the Just - Ramchal’s Introduction - 5

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:43:00 +0000

Mesillas Yesharim

(Part 5)

It was none other than Moshe Rabbeinu who laid out the parameters of true piety near his death, like a loving master leaving behind essential lessons for his disciples. Imagine the moment and the anticipation! The one and only individual to whom “G-d would speak … face to face, the way a man speaks with his friend” (Exodus 33:11) was about to divulge a path to holiness.

This is how he put it. “And now, Israel -- what does G-d your L-rd require of you” in the end, you ask? None other than to “revere G-d your L-rd, to go in all of His ways, to love Him and serve (Him) with full heart and soul, and to keep all of G-d's commandments and statutes” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).

So, what Ramchal set out to do from there was to smooth the jagged edges of this statement by defining some terms.

"Revering G-d”, as he put it, means “being in the same state of reverence before Him that you’d be standing before a great and awesome king”, which is to say, to stand at rapt attention in G-d’s presence, and to be “abashed before His greatness”.

"Going in His ways" doesn’t merely mean adhering to His mitzvah-system (which will come up shortly) but “rectifying your character” and following G-d’s lead in that, if you will. For as our sages put it, "Just as He is compassionate, you are to be compassionate; just as He is gracious, you are to be gracious, and so forth” (Shabbat 133B). “The point,” Ramchal adds, “is that all of your traits and actions are to be just and ethical”.

"Loving G-d” comes to more than standing in blissful attention at His presence. It focuses upon “doing what pleases Him” while “deriving a great deal of joy” in the process. And being troubled “if G-d is somehow displeased by (what) you or someone else” does in disrespect.

Serving G-d with "fullness of heart" not only means doing so wholeheartedly as the term implies, but also “with the purest of intentions”. That means to say, to “serve Him for no other reason whatsoever” than to simply serve Him, and in a way that’s “not conflicted, but full”, and not by “rote, but rather with your full self.”

And "keeping all of G-d's commandments" is to be taken quite literally, and we’re to thus observe them “in full and with all of their conditions”.

Ramchal decided to base The Path of the Just upon a well-known statement by Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yaer that lays out a detailed methodology for accomplishing all that. As Pinchas Ben Yaer put it, “Torah study leads to caution, caution leads to enthusiasm, enthusiasm leads to innocence, innocence leads to abstinence, abstinence leads to purity, purity leads to piety, piety leads to modesty, modesty leads to fear of sin, fear of sin leads to holiness, holiness leads to Divine inspiration, and Divine inspiration leads to the resurrection of the dead” (Avoda Zarah 20B).

And he concluded this introduction by promising to “explain each trait’s particulars and gradations, the means to attain them, as well as their respective deterrents and how to avoid those” in the course of this work. May G-d grant us each the ability to grasp and live by these insights.

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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The Path of the Just - Ramchal’s Introduction - 4

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:39:00 +0000

(Part 4)

There are all sorts of conflicting ideas on the subject of just what piety and service to G-d are all about. And they run the gamut from stark abstinence or selfless subjugation to a rather laissez faire sort. But in fact the “positive and preferred” kind of piety that Ramchal endorses, as he terms it, is “different from our conception of it”.

And the only reason why most of us misunderstand piety, he points out, is because we simply don’t think about it much.

He then makes an interesting point. We’d certainly need to concentrate on it. Because while we might think, he argues, that piety is a “given”, a good person’s “default” position (as we’d put it) which he or she just naturally slips back into when not doing harm or sinning, that’s not so. For, “matters of piety, G-d-reverence and love, and purity of heart are not so ingrained in your heart”, he argues, that you could “come upon (them) nonchalantly and … naturally”. In point of fact, we’d have to follow a process to achieve all that and to avoid its deterrents. For as G- d surely knows, “there’s no lack for things to keep them from you”.

So it follows then that we’d need to actively pursue piety and reverence, and that we’d have to answer for not having done that. After all, “how will we respond on the Day of Reproach if we will have slacked-off in our study of these things, and abandoned … the very essence of what G-d asks of us?” How dare we abandon “our great obligation to our Creator” while spending so much time on things that don’t fulfill what He specifically asks of us, Ramchal implores.

He pointed out an additional fact in another work. We ordinarily delve very rigorously into each mitzvah’s nuanced requirements, arguing for and against each variation and citing many sources for our case … and yet we’re willing to accept pat and fixed definitions for some subtle and wide- ranging mitzvot like “loving G-d”, “fearing G-d”, and the like. And we give scant thought to the makeup of traits like humility, innocence, and abstinence which we agree are important to strive for (Vichuach HaChacham v’haChasssid).

His point is that at bottom what we’re expected to do is to “consider … the true nature of G-d-reverence and its ramifications”, to “set Divine- love in our hearts”, to attach ourselves onto G-d’s presence by “longing for Him” and concentrating upon “His greatness and exaltedness”, and to set about “rectifying and setting-straight” our characters.

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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The Path of the Just - Ramchal’s Introduction - 3

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:59:00 +0000

(Part 3)

People who value Torah wouldn’t deny the fact that we’re each bidden by G- d to draw close to Him, nor could they claim that the idea isn’t an essential teaching of the Torah. “For were you to ask” them yourself, Ramchal offers, “they would each surely affirm that that was essential” to the Jewish Faith, and that none of us should avoid it. So why do so few of us concentrate on it in fact, and thus settle for spiritual mediocrity in the process?

But it goes back to what Ramchal said at the beginning; it’s simply because the idea is so straightforward and inarguable that many otherwise fine and fully-observant people just don’t dwell on it. But there’s a price to pay for that negligence, no matter how innocent, as we’ll soon see.

Interestingly enough, as Ramchal says elsewhere, what has us overlook this fundamental element of our faith is simply the fact that we don’t concentrate on the sorts of texts that feature it.

He asserts that our people have been essentially ungrounded in our spirituality ever since the Holy Temple was destroyed and the greater part of our wisdom was snatched away from us. As a consequence of that we’ve stumbled about in the dark haphazardly, and are seemingly no longer able to see the light.

He offers (and many others agree) that the only solution is for us to delve into the heart and soul of the Torah, its mysteries; for it’s there that G-d and the sorts of things we’d need to do to draw close to Him are discussed. He contends that our doing that will enliven our spirits once again (Ma’amar Vichuach Choker u’Mekubal, pp. 32-34) and will lead us onto the path of piety, which is the thrust of this work.

The price we pay for not delving into all this, he stresses, is the fact that it has nearly gone by the waysides. In fact, “the studying of … the holy books concerning (all this) has been left in the hands of those of a less subtle mind”. And “it has reached the point where when one sees someone trying to become pious, one can’t help but assume that he’s of a coarser nature” -- fanatical, perhaps; or non-conventional and anti- social, as we’d put it today.

And as a result, neither the more conventional bright and sensitive Jewish souls nor the “coarser” ones get it right -- the former because they don’t expose themselves to such things, and the latter because they go about it wrong. For “it has come to appear to most that piety is dependent merely upon the recitation of many Psalms and long, convoluted confessions; upon assuming difficult fasts” and upon all sorts of extremes that simply don’t “sit well with reason or the intellect.”

So he’d advise us that we’d need to step back and reconsider our commitments; and to determine for ourselves how much of a role G-d and reasoned spiritual excellence play in our lives.

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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The Path of the Just - Ramchal’s Introduction - 2

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:02:00 +0000

(Part 2)

As everyone knows, there are average people, bright ones, and then there are truly brilliant individuals. Bright people understand things well enough, intuit things fairly well too, and they can grasp new and even complex thoughts reasonably quickly. Brilliant people, though, understand deeply, intuit on an uncanny level, and they can fully grasp wholly new and intricate thoughts. And we’re duly enamored of brilliant people.

It’s also known that there are fairly “scattered”, inattentive people; focused ones; and then there are truly alert, attuned individuals. Focused people are not only bright and rigorous enough in their thinking, they’re also fixed onto a specific goal; and while they spend a good part of their time in achieving it, they also tend to concentrate on other, lesser goals which draw them away from their major one. Truly and fully attuned individuals, on the other hand, hone in on their primary goal and dovetail everything else they do into achieving it, until they actually and triumphantly realize that goal. But they’re rare, and sometimes their goals are far from lofty.

And then there are truly rare brilliant and attuned individuals with laudable goals. The truth of the matter is that while many of us are bright to one degree or another and focused to a point, we’re far-and-away not focused enough on ultimate goals. In fact, most of us couldn’t even enunciate ultimate goals. But we get ahead of ourselves.

Ramchal addressed the gist of this in his Introduction and indicated that a person couldn’t help but notice that there are a lot of “intelligent, enlightened, aware, and informed people” out there. And they seem to “expend a great deal of their energies on reflection upon and examination of” all sorts of things. Some concentrate on “the minutia of the various sciences, and upon subtle scholarship”, and “concern themselves with questions of cosmogony or physical science”. Others concentrate upon “astronomy or mathematics” or the arts. And some individuals focus upon “the learning of the holy Torah” and either “involve themselves in the give-and-take of Talmudic argumentation (pilpul), in homiletics (drush), or in the deciding of practical law (halacha)”.

The implication he’ll soon make, though, is that while they’re all concentrating on one thing or another, they’re all nonetheless somehow missing the point. None of them appear to be attuned to what matters most of all, no matter how brilliant and focused they are.

For as Ramchal put it elsewhere, what’s required of each one us is to delve into the depths of things (Vichuach HaChacham v’haChasssid), and to realize that our goal is to draw as close to G-d as we can (Derech Chochma) rather than to accrue knowledge per se, or brilliance and attentiveness unto itself.

Indeed, as he put it in this Introduction, “few of (us) concentrate” unfalteringly on what matters most (and here’s where he lays it all out): on “honing our Divine service, loving and revering G-d, clinging unto Him”, and on achieving piety. And we have consequently paid a great price for our distractions from this most vital goal.

And in fact, the great and ominous notion that each one of us is bidden to achieve spiritual excellence by serving G-d in high love and deep reverence, by clinging onto His presence, and by practicing out-and-out piety will prove to be the essential message of The Path of the Just.

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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The Path of the Just - Ramchal’s Introduction - 1

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:14:00 +0000

(Part 1)

There are certain basic moral truths that every reasonable and competent person agrees upon, regardless of whether he or she abides by them. And there are likewise basic religious truths that every earnest, reflective, and believing Jew accepts outright. But in point of fact, there are some religious truths that we don’t have right-at-hand which we’d desperately need to hear said outright if we’re to maintain our faith, bearing, spiritual equilibrium, and perhaps even our very humanity.

Curiously enough, though, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (whom we’ll refer to as “Ramchal”, as he’s best known) indicates at the beginning of this work that he only set out here to “remind people of what they (already) know” and which they have no doubts about, truisms that are “so well- known and … self-evident, that they’re often buried over, or completely forgotten” because they’re so clear. In fact though, that’s not all he did. While he did indeed focus on the traits and behaviors that nearly everyone believes are laudable, and made that the thrust of the book, there’s nonetheless a whole other layer here that touches on the vexing religious issues we raised above.

For, besides addressing those traits, The Path of the Just also lays out our raison d’être and tachlis, our great goal in life. And then -- most significantly -- it then ties the two together. We’ll get to that later on in this introduction and in the first chapter.

In any event, if we’d like to acquire the traits that everyone acknowledges are laudable, then we’d have to follow a certain process, Ramchal reasons, given how nonchalant we seem to be about them. And the process is one we’d term “ingraining”.

For as everyone knows, many good and great thoughts pass us by in the day. Some stick with us for a while, but most of them simply get lost. Not because they’re not important, but because we don’t dwell on them and allow them to leave a firm and indelible impression on our mind. So, the best way to ingest the lofty ideas set out in The Path of the Just, the author informs us, would be to simply read it again and again until its thoughts become ingrained in our beings. That way, we’ll “remember what we might have offhandedly forgotten” and take-in what we’d otherwise scan over without a thought. To be sure, there are many people who reread The Path of the Just every year, a couple of times a year, and more.

Expanding on the need to review the material again and again, Ramchal says elsewhere that sometimes we need to “blow” on ideas like embers, to have the tiny glow in them roar outward all aflame and come alive, so we can reflect on them and thus take them to heart (Derech Eitz Chaim). He speaks in more esoteric terms at another point about how concentrating on things like that enables the soul to sort of gather its forces, if you will, and thus effect change within us (Sod HaMerkavah). At any rate, for our purposes the point is that we’d do best if we reviewed The Path of the Just regularly, reflect on its wisdom in the process, and take it to heart.

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

For any comments, questions or topic requests, please contact Rabbi Yaakov Feldman.

SOURCE: My Email Subscription - Excellence - The Path of the Just

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The Path of the Just - Prologue

noreply@blogger.com (Aryeh) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:22:00 +0000

The Path of the Just, by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

This class is geared to all, from beginners to advanced. The series will focus on a close and slow reading of this classical work of Mussar (Ethical Exhortation), "The Path of the Just" (Mesillas Yesharim), which will be conducted by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman, and will be based on his translation of and commentaries to this famous work.

Prologue

Few works touch upon the sacred human drive to perfect ourselves, to do what’s best and holiest, and to fulfill one’s life goal as well as “The Path of the Just”. Written by a holy man (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto) in a way that nonetheless enables even us humble and flawed souls to resonate with its message and to connect with its goals, it is an utterly unique Torah work.

For what it does so incomparably well is to lay out divine goals, to stir us to aspire for them by evoking the reward, and then to lay out the method -- both what to aim for and what to be sure to avoid in the process.

The goal? Nothing less than drawing close to G-d Almighty, both in one’s lifetime and in the beyond. The reward? Achieving that in fact, in fully palpable ways. The method? Attaining the following traits: caution, enthusiasm, innocence, abstinence, purity, piety, modesty, fear of sin, holiness, divine inspiration, and the resurrection of the dead, while steering clear of their opposites.

And it’s all based on the fulsome and powerful Torah verse that reads, “And now, Israel -- what does G-d your L-rd require of you, if not to revere G-d your L-rd; to go in all of His ways, to love Him and to serve G-d your L-rd with full heart and soul, and to keep all of G-d's commandments and statutes.... “(Deuteronomy 10:12-13).

What we’ll do in this series is quote from the book itself at times, encapsulate and expand upon the ideas when that’s called for, explain Ramchal’s intentions, and cite from some of his other works that address the same themes from different perspectives.

“The Path of the Just” calls for great effort, to be sure. For it demands full loyalty, it challenges our comfortable sense of self, and prods us in directions we hadn’t known of beforehand. And yet we will find ourselves drawn to its call like few other works. Why?

Because somewhere deep in each Jewish heart there lays a muffled, curious melody that’s somehow unnerving … yet tantalizing, that wants to divulge secrets and to finally allow for true happiness. And it wants to be heard once and for all, before it’s too late. It’s the heart’s song to G-d, the lyrics of which are the words of “The Path of the Just”. May G-d grant us the ability to hear it out and heed its call.

By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

For any comments, questions or topic requests, please contact Rabbi Yaakov Feldman.

SOURCE: My Email Subscription - Excellence - The Path of the Just

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