Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

The Voice in the Room

It is told that in 5487, when the Ramchal was twenty, he was reciting a yichud on Rosh Chodesh Sivan when he fell into a trance. As he awoke, a voice said that it had come down to uncover the concealed mysteries of the Holy King. He stood trembling for a while, then steadied himself, and the voice revealed a secret to him.

The next day he arranged to be by himself in the room at the same hour, and the voice returned with another secret. Eventually it told him that it was a maggid sent from Heaven, and it gave him yichudim to recite whenever he wished it to appear again. He never saw the maggid. He heard its voice speaking through his own mouth, and he was allowed to put questions to it.

After about three months, the maggid taught him the yichudim that would make him worthy of a revelation from Eliyahu HaNavi. He was then charged with writing a work on Koheles, on the mystical meaning of its pesukim, and Eliyahu came and shared secrets of his own. The maggid said that Metatron would come as well, and that the Ramchal would know him by what Eliyahu had said. From then on he recognized each visitor. Each day he recorded the new ideas they taught him, and while he lay with his face to the ground, he saw the holy souls whose identity he knew in human form, as in a dream.

His talmid Rav Yekusiel Gordon described these events in a letter to a prominent Italian rav, at a time when the Ramchal was twenty-two. He wrote that the angel spoke out of the Ramchal's mouth while the talmidim heard nothing, and that the Ramchal would then call Eliyahu to come and reveal secrets of his own. At times Metatron came too, together with the Faithful Shepherd, Avrohom Avinu, Rav Hamnuna the Elder, Moshiach and Odom. The maggid had ordered the Ramchal to compose a book of Zohar, which is called in Heaven the Second Zohar. Rav Yekusiel added that no one outside their circle knew of it, and that no one since Rav Shimon bar Yochai had merited such a thing.

In his letter to Rav Binyomin HaKohen, the Ramchal wrote that God-fearing people came to him each day to hear the new things Hashem told him. Many young men who had walked in the empty ways of youth had returned to Hashem and came to him for tikkunim for their past deeds. He credited all of this to Hashem's love and not to his own preparation, while noting that for years he had been careful to recite yichudim, a different one nearly every fifteen minutes.

A New Light in the World

Rav Simcha Zisel, the Alter of Kelm, testified that the Vilna Gaon said, “I saw a great light descend to this world in the form of the sefer Mesilas Yesharim.”

In his introduction to Mesilas Yesharim, the Mahari Maltson wrote that when the sefer first appeared, the Vilna Gaon said, “A new light has come into the world. If the Ramchal were still alive, I would walk on foot to see him and meet him face to face.” He added that the Gaon reviewed the sefer often. When the Gaon received the Ramchal's sefer Adir BaMarom, a commentary on the Idra Rabbah of the Rashbi, he put on Yom Tov clothes to celebrate. It is also known that the Gaon said that had he lived in the Ramchal's generation, he would have walked twelve milin to meet him.

Rav Yaakov Yosef of Ostrog testified that he heard from the Maggid of Mezritch that the Ramchal's generation did not understand him and did not appreciate his great righteousness.

The Rebbes Who Learned Mesilas Yesharim

It is told that the Kohznitzer Maggid studied Mesilas Yesharim as a first step toward any effort to rise higher spiritually. He once said that every lofty level he reached was thanks to that sefer. There is also a tradition that the Apta Rav, author of Ohev Yisroel, said that his whole spiritual direction in life, and his first and most important chinuch (education), came from Mesilas Yesharim.

A tradition from the family of Rav Chacham Tzvi Halberstam relates that the mother of the Ropshitzer commanded him in his youth to study Mesilas Yesharim, and he did so all his days. He testified of himself, “Mein mahus is Mesilas Yesharim,” meaning, my whole being is Mesilas Yesharim. When Rav Shlomo Halberstam of Bobov taught in his yeshiva in Vishnitza, he opened every shiur with a study of Mesilas Yesharim and other mussar seforim.

The Vizhnitzer Rebbe, Rav Yisroel Hager, writes that Rav Chaim Meir, the Imrei Chaim, knew Mesilas Yesharim by heart, and that his father, Rav Moshe, the Yeshuos Moshe of Vizhnitz, required the yeshiva students to learn it as part of their daily mussar regimen. When Rav Naphtali Moskowitz, the Meilitzer of Ashdod, once asked the Imrei Chaim which mussar sefer to learn constantly, the answer came at once. “Mesilas Yesharim is what you should learn and attach yourself to, and then vesti zany a erlicher yid,” meaning, then you can become an upright, pious Jew.

The Rebbe of Pinsk-Karlin recalled that in his youth, one Elul, he and a few other yungeleit came to Rav Moshe Mordechai of Lelov and asked which sefer to learn to prepare for selichos and the Yomim Noraim. After thinking a few minutes, Rav Moshe Mordechai told them to learn Mesilas Yesharim every day for about ten minutes before they eat.

The Pittsburger Rebbe of Ashdod recalled that his father, the previous Pittsburger Rebbe, loved Mesilas Yesharim so much that from the day he took it up it never left his hands. He had memorized it in his youth, and to his last days he learned it intently and added his own comments and ideas. Each time he finished the sefer, he bought a brand-new copy and wrote further insights into it, so that he would learn it with the excitement of the very first time.

Rav Yosef Weinstock, the mekubal, learned Mesilas Yesharim every day. When his daughter died of illness on Yom Kippur, he was meant to sit shiva until the 14th of Tishrei, but giving up his daily shiur pained him so much that he asked the Minchas Yitzchok for permission to continue it, and received it.

Man Alone Joins Heaven and Earth

In Derech Hashem the Ramchal explains that all of creation divides into two realms, physical and spiritual. Whatever we can sense, in the heavens and on earth, is physical. The spiritual is whatever cannot be detected physically, namely souls and transcendental beings, which include the Forces and the angels. Of all things, only man is made of two absolute opposites, a spiritual soul and a physical body. Animals have a soul, but not a spiritual one. Everything in this world has its roots among the Forces above, and every process in nature is overseen by some angel. The one exception is man's free will. Hashem willed that man choose freely between good and bad, and so gave him the power to influence the world in any direction he chooses. Since our knowledge of spiritual things lies beyond our experience, we must rely on the traditions handed down to us.

Derech Hashem, chapter 5

Why We Read Parshas Zachor

The Ramchal teaches that Amalek represents the klippah (husk of impurity) that makes us forget Hashem. That is why we are commanded to remember what Amalek did, since remembering conquers it and stops it from making us forget. The Torah says Zachor, remember, and Chazal teach that this means remembering aloud with the mouth. So we read Parshas Zachor from the Torah each year, which repairs the very damage Amalek caused. Their damage was to leave us faint and weary in Torah, which let them grow strong and defeat us. Rav Moshe Dovid Valli adds, in the name of his rebbe the Ramchal, that no klippah is more dangerous, powerful or difficult than Amalek, because it grasps the inner essence of kedushah and prevents the attributes from uniting.

Divrei Torah of the Ramchal, Parshas Ki Seitzei (on Devarim 25:17-19)

Rebuilding on Rosh Hashanah, Protecting in the Sukkah

The Ramchal explains that the verse about building a new house and making a guard rail for the roof (Devarim 22:8) alludes to the secret of Rosh Hashanah, when the partzuf (spiritual configuration) of Nukva is rebuilt anew. That is why everyone in the world passes before Hashem like sheep on that day, to be judged and to see how she can be rebuilt to guide them through the year. Once she is built up, we must draw around her the surrounding lights, the oros makifin, so that the forces of darkness cannot seize hold of her. This is why we build a Sukkah right after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and why its time lasts all seven days: as long as the building is not finished, we can keep drawing the protective light around her. The building is completed on Shemini Atzeres. The roof stands for the three highest sefiros, which give the main protection.

Divrei Torah of the Ramchal, Parshas Ki Seitzei (on Devarim 22:8)

Beis Yaakov, Leave Katnus Behind

On the verse “Beis Yaakov, lechu venelcha be'Ohr Hashem” (Yeshayah 2:5), the Ramchal explains that all the souls and celestial lights are contained within the Shechinah, so she is called Beis Yaakov. Like a house into which people put whatever they need, the Shechinah is the home in which Hashem places all the souls and lights of the higher and lower beings. She guides them all to completion so that we can leave the golus and the geulah can come. Chazal say that Ben Dovid cannot come until all the souls of the guf have finished arriving. Yaakov hints at katnus (immaturity and small-mindedness), and our good actions help souls reach gadlus (maturity and expanded awareness). That is why the verse says lechu, go out of golus, leave katnus behind, and be repaired through gadlus. Then, repaired, we can walk together in the light of Hashem.

Divrei Torah of the Ramchal (on Yeshayah 2:5)

Yosef and the Attribute of Yesod

On the verse in which Yosef's brothers ask whether he will be king over them (Bereishis 37:8), the Ramchal teaches that the shevatim had no bad intent. Yosef's level was the attribute of Yesod, foundation, which is why he could rule as viceroy of Egypt. Yesod is inclusive, a kollel, and a king must have an all-encompassing soul. The same is true of Shaul and of Moshiach ben Yosef, who will rule in the future. The brothers' question was whether Yosef could complete the rectification of Yesod, which had been damaged by the sparks that fell from Adam HaRishon's sin and had not yet been fully repaired through the exile and redemption from Egypt. So although Yosef ruled, it was not true kingship. He was second to Pharaoh, and Yesod remained partly in the hand of the sitra achra.

Divrei Torah of the Ramchal, Parshas Vayeshev (on Bereishis 37:8-10)