Knowing God's Plan: The Ramchal Denver Community Kollel

What are we trying to understand? Darkei Hashgacha, the purpose of history, by extension the purpose of reality, for reality exists to undergo the cycle of historyHence Ramchal begins not with Hashem being the ultimate good/Chok Hatov l’heitiv, but with the situation of man, as that is the center of the structure of world historyOnce we appreciate where man fits in, we can go back and ask ourselves the broader question of why Hashem created man to be the creator of his own perfection.We think of good being a self contained concept. Meaning, there isn’t necessarily another person present to enjoy the lemonade and beach, in fact they may just disturb peace :). But upon further reflection, we realize that without someone to share the good with our good is meaningless. Going one step deeper, the good is a shared experience, but the ‘other’ is in fact Hashem. Not to say that we can retire to a mountaintop to experience the ‘other’ in the purest form. The only way to truly connect to Hashem, as we will see, is to be as ‘like Him’ as possible — and that means fully engaging in the giving process, whether as a giver or as an enabler/receiver. Being a giver is akin to “paying it forward”Hashem being the ultimate good wanted to give of His good, and what better way to do so then to allow Man to work his way back to HashemThe contradiction between Derech Hashem and Da’at Tevunot.Rabbi N Gottlieb it isn’t a contradiction, embarrassment, as the Yerushalmi says causes the recipient to look away — it’s all about the relationship.Still, why did Ramchal only emphasize this point in Derech Hashem, whereas in all the other sefarim he simply says the nahama d’kesufa issue, which seems so much less satisfying?In Derech Hashem Ramchal is talking in isolation in a nutshell what is tachlis habriah. The Derech Hashem is about many different topics. He therefore didn’t have the luxury of saying nahama d’kisufa and leaving it at that.The same goes for mesilas yesharim, a mussar oriented work, where Ramchal opens by saying, closeness to Hashem is good, and man is tasked with creating that good for himself — Ramchal highlights the relationship between man and G-d, but without asking too many philosophical questions, as that isn’t the purpose of the work.Daas Tevunos and all other sefarim are describing the Kabbalistic system, a description of reality where the key element is the relationship between creation and its Creator — whose Perfectly unified Will unifies all of reality. In most of Ramchal’s works, writing that the recipient is embarrassed to look at the giver, or even that the gift is imperfect, is enough for us to understand the lack inherent in the gift as being a fundamental issue, not an ancillary issue. 

Brief intro to the RamchalChallenge: Rav Hirsch on why philosophical inquiry in the incorporeality of G-d and His unity is a waste of time. Ramchal (See second pg of intro), 3 reasons, 1. Obligation to understand the ways of Hashem 2. To allow us to settle our minds in our faith that all happens for the good etc 3. To appreciate the significance of the mitzvos.Rav Hirsch alludes to the significance of taamei hamitzvos vis vis kabbalahFor the moment, my primary objective is reason # 2. Many of us are advanced in respective fields, and widely read, but what does authentic Torah tradition have to say about the problems of faith? V’hashevosa el l’vavecha means to broaden our horizons to include a framework and structure for seeing the world through Hashem’s eyes.Ramchal in Maamar Havikuach: Understanding the interface between G-d and man.Too often, we simply leave everything beyond our own understanding to “it’s beyond me”. Ramchal provides us with a framework that allows us to begin to see a system.Ramchal (opening of Klach) Kabbalah is one thing: Understanding how everything comes from GodBeing open to hearing G-d’s version of things via the tradition of the Torah, prophets and scholarly, though divinely sanctioned interpretations. Listen first, and try and see how it impacts your worldview second…

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