[Avodah] Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh, hashgacha pratit, and free will

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jul 08, 2010 at 04:08:38PM -0500, Chanoch (Ken) Bloom wrote:
: How am I to understand Rav Schwartz in light of these issues with his
: conception of free will and hashgacha? (And how does he understand the
: Ramchal, and REED?)

I presume as you do, that he doesn't claim to be following REED. I
also am enthralled with Dr Nathan Birnbaum's idea of Tif'eres, where
one's mind is so unified that there is no clear line even between one's
yir'as Shamayim and one's choice of living room end table. Everything
is influenced by one's Jewishness - even aesthetics. (Which we don't
need to revisit yet again.)

The problem you hit WRT the amendation to Chullin 7b "No one bruises
(or even lifts) a finger down below unless a proclamation is issued from
above" is one I hit chasing a few of RIS's quotes.

I also have a problem mapping a large number of his many quotes of the
Ramchal to the way the texts appear to me when I read them. My first
example (and the only one I bothered keeping track of) from 1:7
(cut-n-pasted from <http://bilvavi.net/content/view/280/32>):
    As the Ramchal wrote in Mesillas Yesharim (Ch. 1), "The truth is
    that the only true perfection (the true perfection of every single
    person without exception) is deveikus to Hashem." And he concludes,
    "Anything else considered good by people is vanity and deceptive
    emptiness."

    This is all a Jew really has in life - closeness to Hashem and
    deveikus to Him....

Here's part of MY ch 1 (from <http://www.shechem.org/torah/mesyesh/1.htm>,
I think it's R' Shraga Simmon's translation, but my confusion stemmed
from reading it in the original, and is not due to translation
subtleties):
    Our Sages of blessed memory have taught us that man was created
    for the sole purpose of rejoicing in God and deriving pleasure from
    the splendor of His Presence; for this is true joy and the greatest
    pleasure that can be found. The place where this joy may truly be
    derived is the World to Come, which was expressly created to provide
    for it; but the path to the object of our desires is this world,
    as our Sages of blessed memory have said (Avorh 4:21), "This world
    is like a corridor to the World to Come."

    The means which lead a man to this goal are the mitzvoth, in relation
    to which we were commanded by the Lord, may His Name be blessed. The
    place of the performance of the mitzvoth is this world alone.

    Therefore, man was placed in this world first - so that by these
    means, which were provided for him here, he would be able to reach
    the place which had been prepared for him, the World to Come, there
    to be sated with the goodness which he acquired through them. As
    our Sages of blessed memory have said (Eruvin 22a), "Today for their
    [the mitzvoth's] performance and tomorrow for receiving their reward."

So, as I read the Ramchal, a Jew does NOT really have in life - closeness
to Hashem and deveiques to Him". That's what he has in Olam haBa. In
life, all a person has is the opportunity to become the kind of person
capable of that closeness, and capable of enjoying it.

I hit upon a number of these, and not having someone who could get me
into his paradigm so that the Ramchal and other citations made sense, I
just gave up on the Bilvavi series.

I intend this to be read as an appeal for assistance.

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Zion will be redeemed through justice,
micha at aishdas.org        and her returnees, through righteousness.
http://www.aishdas.org
Fax: (270) 514-1507