Knowing God's Plan # 5

Knowing God's Plan: The Ramchal

• 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.