Knowing God's Plan: The Ramchal

By: Denver Community Kollel
  • Summary

  • Why do evil, suffering, and tragedy exist? Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato, Ramchal, provides a framework for understanding some of the deeper mysteries of life.
    Copyright 2024 Denver Community Kollel
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Episodes
  • Knowing God's Plan # 6
    Jul 3 2024
    • Hashem acting and illuminating to His creations – Those actions are His, though they are geared towards our reception.
    • His attributes don’t define His essence – for He is beyond comprehension. His actions are a chosen expression to relate to His creations.
    • Reality in its present form is a muted form of the Perfection and G-dliness that He intends to reveal. It’s like a shadow on the wall – a revelation/expression of the real item, but in limited form.
    • L’asid lavo Hashem will reveal the perfection and G-dliness inherent in reality itself (the shadow).
    • In the interim, Hashem is animating, infusing, and guiding reality with a higher level of G-dliness, so that all arrives at the place of tikkun it needs to arrive at.
    • Part of this guidance includes the idea that evil itself, evil human choices included lead to the ultimate good.
    • Two aspects to tzimtzum: According to the briah, and allowing us room to perfect ourselves.
    • To every action of history there are two elements: One revealed and one hidden. The revealed element relates to the realm of free will, where wars are instigated on the whims of evil men. The second element relates to Hashem’s guiding the world to its perfection. Hashem, in His infinite wisdom moves matters about in elaborate and wondrous ways, so that each action taken by human beings, and each “natural consequence” taken by humans have the miraculous effect of bringing the world one step closer to perfection.
    • The time of Mashiach/world-to-come will reveal to us how each step of history let to the most incredible goodness.
    • Let’s recall the purpose of the pursuit of Daas Tveno is V’hasehvosa el levovecha: The connection of all to one unified reality is the system of kabbalah and appreciating it gives us a new and deeper understanding of emuna in Hashem. However, the ultimate goal of v’hashevosa el levovecha is to connect emuna to our minds and hearts on a day-to-day basis. The work of da’as tevunos allows us to connect with the inner essence — Hashgacha – leading everything to a state of tikkun. To understand that reality and history are direct expressions of Divinity.

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    39 mins
  • Knowing God's Plan # 5
    Jul 3 2024
    • gilui yichudo Why is the christian idea of G-d (R’L) forsaking Jews part of the 5 heresies that gilui yichudo addresses?
    • Last week we addressed it from the angle of how Hashem isn’t bound by the actions of man. Taking this a step further: The Jewish people received the Torah and have the most constant choice to live with Hashem’s Will or choose their own will. When Hashem brings the world to perfection despite our worst choices we see His absolute Mastery. When we see how the Jewish nation is downtrodden, we should not despair! The greater the illusion that evil is on the rise, the greater the display of G-d’s Mastery when He strikes it down.
    • Free will, which requires the world as we know it, isn’t the end goal, if it were, that would contradict G-d’s Oneness, so to speak, and mean that He is giving this world to man for eternity. That isn’t the case. Free will, and with it the possibility of abandoning the Jews for their failure to use their free will properly, is a temporary state. The day will yet come when it will be natural for man to follow the Will of his Creator, for in fact that is the most natural and beneficial thing for man to do. (Mashal with robotics).
    • (Sfas Emes) “The purpose of free will is to negate free will.” Because the ultimate purpose is to display that only Hashem’s Will stands, to the exclusion of all else, including free will.
    • This great benefit is available to the individual even today, all we need to do is recognize the Oneness of Hashem. For each day we choose between the illusion of our control and ability to do as we please and the reality of Hashem’s Will.
    • Adam’s choice: Ignore the illusion of equality between following G-d’s Will and ignoring G-d’s Will, or follow the illusion to its logical and self-destructive conclusion.
    • The day will come when, for once and for all, man will see the fallacy of choosing anything other than G-d’s Will, for there is nothing but G-d’s Will.
    • The plan B rule: Intellectual faith vs experiential.
    • Climate change/generational decline etc
    • Second to last paragraph in 40: There’s increasingly greater dysfunction in the world, but when Hashem reveals Himself man’s intellectual and emotional world will be straightened out, and the world will recalibrate to its tikkun.
    • The idea that there is olam hazeh and olam habah, two distinct periods with very different purposes, and one leads into the other, but sof maaseh b’machshavah techilah – so work and reward, G-d’s mastery and man’s free Will all become one beautifully harmonious system.


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    21 mins
  • Knowing God's Plan # 4
    Jun 26 2024

    Was Spinoza’s G-d (so to speak) compatible with Torah?

    • There’s a notion that the people of the book took their studios nature and became doctors. Meaning, the tikkun olam we bring to the world is nothing else than being the most productive and contributing members of an inclusive society that is all embracing to all. As we study tonight, let’s see if anything jumps out to either support or contradict this notion.
    • You work hard and you succeed, true or false?
    • Why are so many committed to Torah study?

    Why is the christian idea of G-d (R’L) forsaking Jews part of the 5 heresies that the revelation of G-d's Oneness addresses?

    • Everything we see is G-d = Holiness. But free will mandates that we won’t easily see G-d, in fact we’ll see the opposite. But internally, all is kedusha and Hashem. That’s the relationship between man and G-d, that’s revelation. The end goal is the revelation of G-d on ever increasing levels.
    • Einstein's joy x infinity.


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    37 mins

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