רצה הא"ס ב"ה להיות מיטיב הטבה שלמה, שלא יהיה אפילו בושת למקבלים אותו. ושיער לגלות בפועל יחודו השלם - שאין שום מניעה נמצאת לפניו, ולא שום חסרון. לכן שם ההנהגה הזאת שהוא מנהג, שבה יהיה בפועל החזרת הרע לטוב, דהיינו במה שנתן בתחילה מקום לרע לעשות את שלו, ובסוף הכל כבר כל קלקול נתקן, וכל רעה חוזרת לטובה ממש. והרי היחוד מתגלה, שהוא עצמו תענוגן של נשמות:
The Infinite One wanted to express utter and complete benevolence in such a way that its recipients wouldn't be ashamed to accept it. So He set out to (eventually) reveal His Yichud, (and to thus show) that He has neither deterrents nor defects.
He accordingly established the system of governance that He now uses (which is the gist of what the Kabbalistic system sets out to illustrate), thanks to which wrongfulness will (eventually) revert to goodness.
For while God initially granted wrongdoing a realm in which to do what it can, in the end all harm will be rectified and all wrong will revert to actual goodness. And God's Yichud will thus be revealed, (the experience of) which will in fact be the delight of the souls.
This fourth petach -- which is the last of the introductory petachim -- sets out to tie up loose ends and to fully explain God's ways and intentions in general. It clarifies the extent and implications of God's beneficence as well as the final status of wrong and injustice, and it illustrates the outcome of the revelation of God's Yichud. Whereas to now Ramchal has revealed the intention for which the world was created, he here divulges the means by which God will carry it out.
1.
First, recall that Ramchal had defined God's Yichud in the first petach as the playing out of the fact that "only His will functions (fully) and that no other will functions other than through it", despite appearances, and that "He has neither deterrents nor defects" as he added above.
Now, his point has been that everything created -- every single item, person, phenomenon, and process -- is part of a great and splendid "device", if you will, whose sole aim is to prove that God's reign is utter and supreme. The implications of that are of course quite stunning, breathtaking, even undoing, since it implies that nothing has a life or raison d'être of its own so much as a role to play in the revelation of God's sovereignty. Yet we've also been taught that we have free will (1:4), which would clearly affirm our own personal reality as well as our importance in the makeup of the universe. So what role do we play in the end?
Significantly, since it's we alone who allow for the revelation of God's Yichud in the world, as we'll see, we clearly matter infinitely much.
2.
Wanting to allow us this high purpose, God meant for us to accept His benevolence on our own and to thus assume an active part in it. But we're not inclined to accept out-and-out benevolence, because of a uniquely human inability to accept a favor without being embarrassed by our benefactor's largesse. As our sages put it, "One who eats what is not his is ashamed to look in his (benefactor's) face" (J. T., Orlah 1:3) [1].
So in order to avoid this, we're told, and to assure the fact that we wouldn't be "ashamed to accept" his benevolence, God saw to it that humankind would "have a way of doing something to earn the good that they'd receive". That way they'd enjoy what had come to be theirs through their efforts, and they'd thus be the sort of willing participants in the process He wants us to be.
In order to facilitate that effort God set out to create the system of good and evil (to allow for our good and bad choices), of reward and punishment (to affirm the seriousness of each one of our choices), and free will (to in fact allow us our own input).
With all that in place, God will indeed then be able to "express utter and complete benevolence in such a way that its recipients wouldn't be ashamed to accept it" -- since we would have earned it and would be willing to accept it.
Accordingly, God then "established the system of governance that He now uses", (the system of good versus evil, reward versus punishment cited above) which allows humankind to participate constructively and maximally in God's world, and for the eventual revelation of God's Yichud, as we'll now see. And "thanks to which wrongfulness will (eventually) revert to goodness", once His Yichud is revealed.
3.
The reward we'll be granted in the end will be the revelation of God's Yichud which, as we'd learned, would be the stark discovery that despite appearances, God has "neither deterrents nor defects" and is utterly sovereign in His rule.
For while God initially granted wrongdoing a realm in which to do what it can, so as to allow us a voluntary role in the grand scheme of things, in the end all harm will be rectified and all wrong will revert to actual goodness [2]. But know that that "could not come about in fact until wrongfulness was actually revealed" in the world; so while wrongfulness certainly does its harm and ravages many souls, it's still and all a "necessary evil", if you will, without which full and effulgent goodness could never come about.
God's Yichud will thus be revealed after all -- after all harm is reverted to goodness--
and that will (prove to) be the delight of the souls (in reward for their efforts) [3], given that "all souls long to rejoice in and return to their Source" [4] as Ramchal puts it.
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Notes:
[1] This notion, known as Nahama D'kisufa ("The Bread of Shame"), is also cited in Tosephot to Kiddushin 36b, "Kawl Mitzvah"; R' Yoseph Karo's Maggid Maisharim (Breishit, "Ohr Layom Shabbat 14 Tevet"); R' Menachem Azariah De Fano's Yonat Elim (beginning); and the anonymous Orchot Tzaddikim's Sha'ar HaBusha. Also see Derech Hashem 1:2:2
Also see R' Shriki's note 7* on pp. 13-14 where he raises the question as to why God couldn't have just undone this anomaly.
[2] Ramchal indicates here that this alludes to the Kabbalistic concept of Tzimtzum (the "contraction" or diminution of God's Light that had to occur if things were to exist) which was said to occur in the "center" of God's being (see Eitz Chaim, Drushei Iggulim V'Yosher 11:3). As Ramchal explains it, the "center" referred to in the concept of Tzimtzum (see Eitz Chaim, Drushei Egul v'Yosher 11:3) alludes to the fact that the allowance for wrong and injustice, its eventual undoing, and eventual perfection is the central theme of the universe as it is now. See Da'at Tevunot 40, Clallam Rishonim 3, Biurim l'Sefer Otzrot Chaim 6.
[3] See petach 49 below and Ramchal's Esser Orot Ein Sof 1 (Ginzei Ramchal p. 307). Also see Shabbat 152b; Chovot Halevovot 4:4, 8:4, and 10:1; Kuzari, 1:103; 3:20; and Rambam's Moreh Nevuchim 1:74 (seventh method), comments to Perek Chelek, and Hilchot Teshuvah Ch. 8.
[4] See Da'at Tevunot ¶24. Also see R' Schneur Zalman of Liady's Likkutei Torah, beginning of Parshat Haazinu; and Leshem Shevo v'Achlamah, Chelek HaBiurim 2, p.14.
(c) 2009 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org
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