Da'at Tevunot - The Knowing Heart
Section 4, Chapter 11
1.
While the sky may change from blue to mauve, to gray, to black in the course
of a single morning; and the air may change from cool to cold, to tepid, to
warm in an hour; our spiritual status isn’t all that variable. Before we can
get on with our discussion of Divine Justice we’d need to review a few
points about that.
For while each generation differs from the other, each person, each
circumstance, each environment, etc., varies from each other, at bottom
there’ll prove to have been only two over-arching human states before
everything will change for good with the revelation of G-d’s sovereignty:
our Pre- and Post-Tree-of-Knowledge states.
As we said, things changed drastically when Adam and Eve sinned [1]. In
fact, Ramchal says that our spirituality now is on par with Adam and Eve’s
materiality before their sin, they were that angelic. Our task is to return
to the Pre-Tree-of-Knowledge state, of course. But given that “the world
will certainly arise from of its low state” in the end, as Ramchal asserts,
and given that everything is thus heading in that direction, we are too.
2.
It’s also important to understand that things -- and we -- would need to be
rebuilt and rectified from the bottom up. All sorts of radiance would need
to pour downward from up above down there first, though only as much as the
bottom could bear, until it would grow used to the new light and gladly
accept it. The process will then continue onward and upward like that, step
by tentative step.
Knowing this, we can go ahead with our explanation of G-d’s system of
justice and His love, and of His overall governance as well [2].
Notes:
[1] See 3:22 and the references cited in the notes there.
[2] See 4:2:2, 4:4:2, and 4:6:1 for mention of G-d’s love.
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). His works are available in bookstores and in various
locations on the Web.
