Letter of the Ramchal -- book report

HH

About 15 years ago this book was called something else (Ramchal and his Generation - I think), less organized and presentable, and not available, In order to read it you had to borrow it from someone, and that's what I did (a guy in Lakewood, he died a few years ago). Today B"H the Machon (institution of) Ramchal (located in Har Nof, Jerusalem) publishes "Igros Ramchal" - Letters of Ramchal, and it is very presentable and readily available (although I don't think they are willing yet to make it free on Hebrewbooks, unlike the predecessor of the publication of the Ramchal, Yosef Spinner, who amazingly, may HY bless him, gave all this material for free download!).

Yesterday I finished rereading this amazing book, which is on the top of the most must read books. This book is a source of strength and encouragement to help one through the tribulations of life. Here are some of my thoughts that I quickly jotted down, to ease the rage and to leave some memory of the torrents of passion which coursed through me from this reading.

HH

True genius often has a facade of simplicity. The most complex equations are often just a few characters. Once I saw a little girl swing across monkey bars with such liquid agility that made it look like it was a simple exercise anyone can do with ease. The Ramchal's writings have such a genius and clarity. The Ramchal himself showed how huge problems and contradictions fall away and are clarified with the few precise words that he set down.

Rabbainu Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman reveals in Likutay Moharan that the sicker a person is the greater the doctor he needs, and so too in comprehension and cognizant consciousness, the lower and more murky one's wit, the greater the tzadik he needs to reach true realization of G-d reality. Here to the Ramchal's writings shine out, for even though some of the greatest scholars of his time felt, erroneously, that some of his writings were just drawn from previous works, they failed to grasp the utter genius and power of presentation, which can very well be gauged by the far lower aptitude needed to get a strong comprehension of the matters presented by the Ramchal as opposed to reading the early writings. 

A nice analogy to this is the awesome impact of the book "Shumati" - I heard (originally one small volume, which I read, and reread as a very thick volume, and is now 4 very large ones which I have only seen from a distance), this book is very powerful, but it seems that this is only so for some people who are more comfortable with the writings, who find it to be almost worthy of Breslov. Yet your average Jew, who survives from day to day principally on Breslov, does not appreciate Shumati whatsoever.

In hind sight it is certainly a clear travesty that most of the leading Rabbis didn't have enough sense to appreciate these and other points. Even Rabbis that somewhat defended the Ramchal, seem oblivious to the awesome magnitude of genius not to mention Divine Revelation that was at stake.

In the letters exchanged regarding the banning of the Ramchal's writings, a good percentage start with a full paragraph of adulation for the recipient, sometimes much much more, and rabbis excuse themselves due to their great communal responsibilities that keep them tied up, and how busy they are teaching their students. So they are quick to look for anything that passuls (makes no good and forbidden) the Ramchal, and close him off. Even when they see that the leading prosecution against the Ramchal from the city of Vinitzia is fraught with corruption: they present false witnesses and testimony – even presenting it 5 years later, their rabbis are known power mongers and known to be incompetent, and they openly disparage luminaries of the generation. None of this was sufficient for the arbitrating Rabbi's to put even a halt in their mission to scrap the Ramchal. Even more amazing the lies and animosity of these rabbis were readily believed and accepted by other Rabbis throughout Europe. Even R' Yaakov Emden, readily added his name to the trumped up witch hunt crusade.

Almost every great Rabbi that truly wanted HY, and went personally to the Ramchal to see for themselves maybe there was a chance that they could learn the secrets of HY, were rewarded. The Ramchal's father-in-law – R' Dovid Pintchi - the Rabbi of Manitoba, and the Pachad Yizchok, and R' Avi-ad Sar Shalom, all very top Torah scholars went to see the Ramchal, and merited to learn from his. They testified to the veracity of his teachings and his righteousness (even here it is strange that they didn't go to greater means to defend the Ramchal from the hatred and vitriol against him).

In the letters another strong point is brought out, that against the book Shaagas Aryeh which blasphemes against the sanctity and veracity of the Zohar and Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the Rabbis did very little and barely came out against it.

The Ramchal himself writes that it appears to him that there are no true tzaddikim in his generation.

Also the Ramchal says (Letter 99) that he was sent for by a high (French) noblewoman in Geneva, with great supplication, to authenticate the Kabbala. The Ramchal attests that this lady truthfully was proficient in all the writings of the Arizal, to the extent that he was amazed to hear her.

It is interesting that in the last letter we have from the Ramchal to his students he concludes by warning them not to be lazy and not to succumb to the travail of the times, but to remember that this world is just an antechamber before the palace.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!

Ramchal's One infinite vessel

HH
Tonight, yesod she-bi-yisod, is the hilula of the Ramchal (acronym Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto). He brought many souls to Nanach, including myself. When I read his work "daas tevunos" (realizing knowledge of understanding) I was an extremely diligent yeshiva boy very much ingrained in the Yeshiva philosophy, this work made a huge dent in my belief in their system. It was such a huge game changer - I understood distinctly that a person can excel and master the whole Talmud, and not realize the enormous revelation of this holy awesome work. From then on I intensified my search, concentration, and focus on finding out the important things in life. This is in fact what "Torah Lishmu" (Torah for the Sake of the Shechina), as Rashi in two places in the Talmud says explicitly that this is the intent to find the secrets of the Torah. On all of this I would need to go to great lengths to explain, but here is not the place or time.

It's been many many years since I've reread this holy work, and I can not do full justice or take responsibility of accuracy. Arguably the main point of the work is to show how G-d created the world to reveal His unity, as this allows for the manifestation of all the possible levels of non-unity, where as any other attribute only shows a clear expression of it's positive existence but not of it's ineptitude. E.g wisdom manifests itself at many levels, but there is no measure for stupidity, it is just the absence of intellect, whereas G-d's Unity is just the opposite, His unity is infinite and cannot be fathomed, but every type, form, and amount of unity clearly manifests itself, and thus can be used as a handle of showing some level and perception of G-d's unity. as negative vessels, to reveal that there is only The One Infinite. These vessels show that after every possible force, virtue, or anything achieves maximization, it is nothing, there is just G-d. The evil was created to show that as much as it can even look as prevalent, a rock to big for its creator, it can even give such an impression, and this too is nothing, for the reality is the One Infinite G-d. The infinity of G-d can not be shown in itself, it is impossible to show the infinity of 1, so G-d showed every possible venue, and the more realization of how they have no existence outside of G-d, the more realization of the infinity of G-d Himself.

Some people find this hard to understand, and that's reading it from the clear writing of the Ramchal, so don't go hard on yourself if you don't get my one paragraph synopsis written 15 years after reading the original. But it's the best I can give you for now.

The Ramchal himself reveals, and this is something the Baal Shem Tov really drove home, that all of the Kabbala, all the worlds, are in Man. When sitting before G-d, you gotto let G-d take over. Contemplate how all your limbs are inverse vessel (vessels that don't hold things inside of them, but rather like a dot which holds everything around it) screaming the ultimate presence and realization of G-d. If you could do this, you will be one very happy camper, fortunate is your lot in this world which is already the next world.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!