RabbiYaakovFeldman

-- I'm working on an adaptation of Ramchal's "Da'at Tevunot" (which had lovingly but inaccurately been translated as "The Knowing Heart", but which I now translate as "Knowing the Reasons"). I wanted to post this selection from the first chapter (I'm further along, but I'm going back to this point for a friend's sake). But let's understand its context.

-- The work sets out to explicate some of Rambam's ikkurim, but not others. One that he *doesn't* deal with is the the "definition" of G-d that Rambam provides us with. As Rambam words it, and as I paraphrase it in my work, it comes down to several points --

"First, that G-d is 'perfect in all ways and is the cause of everything else that exists'. He 'sustains (everything’s) existence as well as the existence of all that sustains them', and if He somehow 'would not exist, then everything else would cease to exist, too'. Second, that He is one. But that’s not to say that He’s 'one of a pair, one of a specie, one object comprised of many parts, or a single simple object that’s infinitely divisible'. Instead, 'He is a unity unlike any other possible unity'. Third, that G-d was 'the utterly first' entity, with absolutely nothing preceding Him and thusby influencing or effecting Him. Fourth, that G-d 'isn’t physical', which means to say that 'He hasn’t a body, that His abilities are not physical', and that everything associated with physical entities 'such as movement, rest, or existence in a particular place can’t be applied to Him, for they’re not a part of His nature, nor can they occur to Him'. We’re also to understand that 'every time the Torah speak of Him in physical terms, as (for example) walking, standing, sitting, speaking and anything similar, this usage is always metaphoric'. And fifth, that the world was created *ex nihilo*, which is to say that 'G-d formed and created it when there had been absolutely nothing there (before)'."

-- But at the insistance of Nae Hecht I included the following note:

"There are several reactions readers could have to this section. Some might be glad to see this all said outright and unambiguously. Others may be thunderstruck by a frame of mind that would allow for the utter purity and simplicity-of-statement we find here about G-d. And others yet who have struggles with these concepts might be frankly unconvinced by what’s said here but would *desperately* like to know how they can be said to be unquestionably true -- let alone that G-d actually exists! For after all, as a friend once put it, 'these are the concepts upon which all else depends; reality itself is raised or buried based on these truths'.

But rather than prove the veracity of what’s said here, which is obviously beyond the scope of this work, I’ll offer this viewpoint on belief in G-d.

Child psychologists speak of 'basic trust' and they define it as the sense of safety and security that we develop as infants that prepares us to believe that the world is predictable and reliable, and gives us the wherewithal to reach out to, depend on, and need others, and to see them as the source of good things.

I contend that one would have to have developed that same sense of basic trust in G-d in order to truly (which is to say, vividly and earnestly) believe in and interact with Him in his or her own life.

But how do we do that? By reaching out to Him in contemplation, in Torah study (of a faith-specific content), and prayer; then by sensing Him reaching out to us in response again and again, and unwaivingly so.

Of course our experiencing that from Him that is neither a 'given' nor is it rational, frankly. But as 'believers and the descendants of believers' (see Shabbat 97A) -- which is to say, as individuals blessed with the family bent for faith in G-d as most Jews are (though not all, since not everyone in a musical family is musical at bottom) -- we come to it more easily than others."

(c) 2004 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

You can always contact Rabbi Feldman at feldman@torah.org

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Get your own copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” by logging onto http://www.aronson.com/jbookstore/ and typing in "The Gates of Repentance".
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). And his new work on Maimonides' "The Eight Chapters" will soon be available from Judaica Press.
His works are available in bookstores and in various locations on the Web.
Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled "Spiritual Excellence" and "Ramchal".

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