"The Way of G-d" - PART 1 - The Fundamental Principles of Reality - Ch 1

"The Way of G-d" - PART 1 - The Fundamental Principles of Reality - Ch 1 - Par 2

Derech Hashem

Chapter 1 - The Creator

Paragraph 2

There are a number of cogent points made in this week's study. The first is that only G-d can comprehend His *true Being*. We simply cannot.

Let's start off by explaining that there are two perspectives from which to approach G-d. G-d as He is Himself, "within His own Essential Being", utterly transcendent of everyone and everything. And G-d "facing outward", so to speak, immanent and approachable.

Let me quickly make myself clear. Make no mistake about it-- there's only *one* G-d, and He is who He is wherever He is, without variation. I'm referring to how *we experience Him to be*, and the perspective from which we perceive Him.

In any event, when G-d is alone in His own Essential Being, He is utterly, utterly unfathomable and out of our experience. It's as impossible to grasp Him when He's "there" and "then" (in a state that can at best be called "therelessness" and "thenlessness", since it's fully removed from and alien to space and time) as it is to fully and truly grasp what's on someone's mind at any one moment.

For were I to catch you deep in thought, I might *assume* you're thinking about this or that either because that's what you tend to think about, that's what I'd be thinking about, or that's what most people in your situation would be thinking about. But I really couldn't know. And were I to offer that you were thinking about one thing or another, I might be partially right-- but only partially so.

Because while you might indeed be thinking about eating, for example, as I’d claim, you might also be thinking about money, your umbrella, daisies, the color yellow, etc., etc. And though you could indeed be thinking about eating, you might nonetheless be thinking about eating a wholly different way than I'd ever imagine.

In any event, just as I can never know you from *within* in all your fullness, though I can know you from *without* to some extent-- I can likewise never know G-d from within, and only somewhat from without, though infinitely less so.

Ramchal goes on to say, though, that we do know *something* about Him as He is, which is that He's *utterly whole* and lacks for nothing. That is, that He's utterly self-contained and self-sufficient, utterly independent (and hence utterly and truly free, immortal, and all-powerful in ways we can't fathom, but that's a subject unto itself).

How do we know that? Both from ancient tradition and from personal, soul-based experience, Ramchal offers. And he cites a verse to illustrate that, which reads "Take great care... never to forget what you saw with your own eyes... and let your children and your grandchildren (etc.) know about the day you stood before G-d your L-rd at Horeb (i.e., Mount Sinai)" (Deuteronomy 4:9-10).

In other words, as our sages put it, each one of us was at Mount Sinai on a soul level when G-d appeared in His utter wholeness there; and it thus behooves us to perpetuate that "racial memory" in the here and now by passing it on through the tradition.

Interestingly enough, though, Ramchal hears the objections of the sceptics out there, and offers that, in point of fact, G-d's utter wholeness can also be verified logically, demonstrated in nature, and be derived from physics and astronomy (which many have done, including Maimonides in his "Guide for the Perplexed", and Bachya Ibn Pakudah in his "The Duties of the Heart"). And the suggestion is that the curious would do well to study their works, or arrive at their own proofs.

But he declares that we won't be depending on such proofs in "The Way of G-d"; but rather on the principles laid down by the tradition attesting to G-d’s wholeness, which he'll thus be presenting in the course of this work.

There are two things to be said about that. First, that Ramchal’s point seems to be that logical, experimental insight invariably comes upon a brick wall when it tries to fathom the unfathomable. But at least it *somewhat* satisfies the testy soul who will not give in.

And second, that while we might not be able to recall the "racial memory" of experiencing G-d up close at Mount Sinai for ourselves, studying the traditions about it and sensing it deep in the heart that way is second best.

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.

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Ramchal's Spiritual Gems

Sunday, 10 January 2010

Aryeh