"The Way of G-d" - PART 1 - The Fundamental Principles of Reality
Derech Hashem
Ramchal's Introduction
1.
Ramchal's introduction to “The Way of G-d” isn’t really what we’d expect it to be. It isn’t for example a rationale for studying G-d’s way in the first place, or a justification for the idea that we humans can explain it. It obviously assumes that, as believers, we accept the idea that has been so fundamental to the Jewish Faith for millennia that G-d revealed these things through the Tradition, and that despite the complexity of it all, they can be explained.
So what this introduction does from the very beginning, and without apology, is to simply lay out G-d’s methods of interacting with the universe, and in an orderly and rational way. And more.
2.
Ramchal’s first point is that it's far, far better knowing things in a structured and orderly manner than in a haphazard one. He compares haphazard knowledge to a wild, chaotic forest, and structured knowledge to an orderly, symmetric garden. He offers that we become befuddled when we confront things that are set out in a hodgepodge fashion, and that we can’t determine a correlation between the whole and its parts, or between the parts themselves. Our mind becomes taxed, he says, and we shut down. For we find ourselves lost in a great forest of data that we have to sift through exhaustingly. And as a consequence the very thing that excited us so much from the start -- the possibility of understanding something clearly -- proves to be our nemesis. The opposite is true, though, when we come upon data that’s laid out in order and by category: we're delighted and pleased.
Now, on the surface Ramchal seems to be offering a reasonable-enough insight that matches our experience and goes far to explain mental-stress. But we quickly become excited when we realize that he's suggesting that there needs to be order and symmetry when it comes to books that speak about G-d in the universe; so when he sets out to do that in “The Way of G- d” our interest is piqued. And in fact ”The Way of G-d” is perfect in its layout, as well as very soul-satisfying and alluring.
3.
Yet it's clear that there’s a deeper, more subtle message being conveyed here, too. Ramchal seems to be addressing the inner life. He’s apparently contrasting a perplexed, torn, tortured G-dless soul who can’t see the connection between things, and the person of pure, clear faith and religious erudition who can.
For the tortured soul finds himself in the midst of a wild, chaotic forest of fear day after day. He never knows what he'll come upon from moment to moment, and can’t be sure he’ll know what to make of it once he comes upon it.
The only connection he sees between things is a chronological one. He stumbles about with mind shut down, and can fathom neither rhyme nor reason. The more things he comes upon, the greater his confusion. It gets to the point where life and its travails threaten rather than bolster his confidence.
Not so the person of full faith and knowledge, who walks about a veritable Garden of Eden laid out in full splendor. Each and every thing he meets confirms his faith in an orderly way and meaningfully, and reveals the shrewdness and wisdom of the Great Planner.
Ramchal's intention seems then to be to provide us with the great master plan laid out in order, and to thus allow us the great bliss and airy-ease that true and knowledgeable believers enjoy.
4.
Then Ramchal seems to turn a corner and begins advising us how to analyze things.
His first suggestion is that we'd do best to always consider things in relation to the whole -- to look at "the big picture". Taking his own advice, Ramchal then steps back a nearly infinite distance and speaks of all of existence -- "(of) both the tangible and the abstract, i.e., (about) everything you would possibly imagine".
He determines from that perspective that absolutely everything is different from everything else, both in kind and in quality; and that everything has rules unique to itself. Hence the only way to understand anything and how it functions would be to see what sets it apart from everything else.
He then goes on to offer (quite succinctly and precisely) that there are four general categories under which things fall: they're either a whole entity or part of one, a general instance of this or that or a particular instance, a cause of something else or an effect of some cause, and either an essence (i.e., a thing itself) or a quality (something about that thing).
He advises us to keep in mind that (1) if something is a part of something else, that we'd do well to determine the whole it's a part of, in order to see it in “the big picture”. If (2) it's a cause of something, then we'd have to determine its effects, or determine its cause if it's an effect. If (3) it's a quality, then we should surmise the essence associated with it, and consider if the quality preceded the essence, came about at the same time, or if it came about after it; and whether the quality is intrinsic to the essence or happened by accident, and whether it’s only a potential quality, or an actual one. Then we'd do well to determine (4) whether the thing we're analyzing is absolute or limited; and if it's limited, then we'd then have to determine its limits. Since doing all that helps to provide us with a complete picture.
His final point is that we'll never determine the truth about anything unless we unearth its context and take it from there. And the astute reader notices that "The Way of G-d" is constructed just that way (though it would take a whole other book to point that out, step by step.)
5.
On a deeper level though we also find that Ramchal has allotted us another profound lesson in self-knowledge along the way.
For if we're ever to determine who we are and to thus better ourselves, we too would have to look at "the big picture" and see ourselves in context. For while we're each unique with rules of our own, we nonetheless fit into a whole and would do well to see our own place in it.
The whole we're a part of is the universe in its entirety. In certain instances we cause things to happen, and in other instances we're affected by others' initiatives. Sometimes we're essential to a situation, and other times happenstantial and quite secondary. And on and on.
The point seems to be that knowing ourselves hangs on knowing our context and our relation to others. But that's only one level of looking at what our author is alluding to so astutely. At bottom he also seems to be saying that each one of us is a particular part of G-d directly affected by Him and beholden to Him. And that He alone is the essence.
And indeed, that's what 'The Way of G-d" is all about. It's a methodical manual for delving into our beings and for finding G-d's place in it and in the entire universe.
By Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has translated and commented upon "The Gates of Repentance", "The Path of the Just", and "The Duties of the Heart" (Jason Aronson Publishers). His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Da'at Tevunot - The Knowing Heart, Copyright © 1995 - 2007 by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org.
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