Renaissance & Revelations

The Ramchal, Rabbi Moshe Chayim Luzatto, might be viewed as the quintessential messianic Kabbalist. 

He was born in 1707 in Padua, near Venice, but will die at the young age of 39, in 1746 in Israel, following the tragic death of his wife and son, from a plague.

Despite his short lifetime, he wrote an immense amount of texts of all kinds - letters, books, articles, poems, even plays. 

He wrote ethics, theology, Kabbalah, and linguistics. He engaged in polemics of communal religious matters, often pertaining to himself... 

The era in which he was active was on the one hand marked by the cultural and intellectual richness of the Italian world. On the other, as a mystical messianic figure of the Lurianic Kabbalah school merely a few decades after the Sabbatian debacle, he found himself constrained by conservative rabbinical forces.

He was a prodigy, born into a wealthy family, among circles of influential rabbis with powerful intellects. His friends and fellow mystics were young rabbinical scholars and some were students of medicine at the university in Padua, from Jewish communities across Italy and beyond. 

What is fascinating about him is the timing. He was post-Sabbatean and pre-Hasidic. The Ramchal was accused of Sabbateanism, just like the Hasidim later on. He predated the Hasidic movement, by being outspoken and unapologetic with mystical messianic activity, and being persecuted for doing so. 

But even more fascinating, was that he rejected the Sabbatian faith while seeming to maintain plenty of Lurianic elements they shared. 

Young, Talented, Liberal, Zealous

Ramchal was all these things. He embodied the charisma of the reformer. There was something slightly naive about him and his approach, as he was straightforward with his views, and a bit less politically savvy.

His mystical messianic activity was in the context of a small group. [We have seen this Zoharic - Lurianic format in the case of Rabbi Avraham Israel Kook, and of Rabbi Nachman of Breslev, and others.] They formed an esoteric circle, with Kabbalistic and messianic vision, and practice ecstatic methods of meditation and revelation. And while doing so, associate themselves with Kabbalistic spheres and messianic prophecy. 

At the age of 20, he experienced a Magid, an angelic being of revelation who would speak or communicate to him, sharing deep knowledge, of messianic enlightenment, knowledge regarding the Kabbalistic spheres and principles.

After the news of this revelatory engagement spread and reached known anti-Sabbatian hunters of sorts, the scandal began. Ramchal was harassed and nearly excommunicated by the pressure of these players against him, though their claims were more assumptions. 

Another deed that sparked controversy was writing a book in Aramaic called Zohar Tinyana, the second Zohar, mimicking the language and style of the Zohar, providing a simplified instructional version of the Zohar, as inspired by a Maggid to him. The book did not survive, but was apparently entirely about redemption, mystical acts of tikkun, and the Messiahs Joseph and Davi

The claims against him sparked much more literature from Ramchal, clarifying his positions on various matters, some directly connected to Kabbalah and Sabbatianism, others in other fields, apparently to avoid the focus solely on Kabbalah and messianism and Sabbatianism, showing his proficiency on ethics for example, and the Hebrew language for example.

At first he agreed to refrain from writing publicly about Kabbalah, and eventually relocated to Amsterdam to try and redeem his position, paying the price of leaving his close circle of kabbalistic associates. 

He wrote Mesilate Yesharim, roughly translated Path of the Righteous, a book on ethics, in a simple accessible format. This piece became what has been coined as the latest canonical text in Judaism, accepted all over Judaism, until today studied by youths and new believers as an introduction to piety. 

What is special about this book, among other things, is the form and style. It is purposely designed to communicate otherwise complicated religious matters in a systematic way. His approach stood in stark contrast to eclectic, sometimes purposely, complicated paths to Jewish knowledge of the middle ages. 

In that sense, Ramchal was bringing in the culture of the enlightenment, of modernism, as opposed to medieval rabbinics. It was also apparently polemical, as the players who persecuted and opposed him were often of the old school.

Staff or Snake

The extremely popular work Path of the Righteous, was written in part due to the restrictions placed upon the Ramchal to engage in mystical practices. However, one may see the book as necessary virtues and character and fundamental piety required, in the view of the Ramchal, to enter mystical knowledge and experience.

Later in life, he left Amsterdam with his family to Israel, which was also an act of messianic mystical mission. He never left his mystical self consciousness. He was forced to be less outspoken. 

What seems to me to be the most fascinating part about Ramchal and messianism is that he saw in Nathan of Gaza the prophet of Sabbatianism not a heretic but a prophet who misidentified the Messiah. Or at least one who was not essentially wrong in his approach. 

In an effort to defend himself, Ramchal wrote the book The Zeal of the Lord of Hosts. This piece was not written to be popular content accessible to the public. In the second main part, he alludes to Sabbatianism many times, while going in and out of addressing Lurianic principles, which pertain to messianism. 

One of the secrets, easily misleading, is the deep complex dynamic between that which is holy amidst the evil, Divine Presence clothed in the Other Side (the Sitra Achra), because of Israel’s sins and disposition. In such cases one must be very discerning, but it is part of the way of the world, and how holiness overcomes profane, because of this dynamic of interaction. 

This is the secret of the Staff (of Moses) turning into a Serpent, then back into the Staff, and the gematria between Messiah (משיח 358) and Snake (נחש 358). 

The Sabbatians essentially were an expression of the forces of evil drawing from the power of the Presence. The experiences of the Sabbatians were real but came through the Sitra Achra which played off of the Presence. 

Messiah is also clothed in the evil husks. This is more the role of Messiah Son of Joseph, who during weakness goes deep into evil, like Joseph imprisoned, only to become powerful and righteous. 

Joseph, or Messiah Son of Joseph, is commissioned to engage and bring tikkun to the external or material aspects. This is where antinomian temptation or predicament presents itself, and this is where Sabbatianism went wrong. 

Joseph thought he must enter evil and engage in sexual relations with the wife of Potiphar, a messianic act of being clothed in husks, but then he realized this was wrong and refrained from such sinfulness which would have ruined him, thus he maintained messianic holiness... 

The Sabbatians were like Joseph’s first thinking gone wrong, and might be compared to the cases of Esther and of Yael. Both women engaged in sinful sexual relations for the sake of some good, tikkun action, but the difference is that Esther was more passive and she did what she had to do, and so maintained some sort of delicate balance of the Presence clothed in the husks, without submission to the forces of evil. 

However, Yael was somewhat opportunistic, she didn’t have to do it, and there was a sinful intention there like that of Eve and the Snake in Eden. Yael made a tikkun but strengthened the side of evil ultimately. 

Either way, surely neither such cases are matters of general ruling and surely are not meant to change the Torah, which is what the Sabbatians made of it.

Meaning of Life

Another tragic romantic intellectual mystical hero, the Ramchal died young, but was brilliant and prolific, and ironically the forces that tormented him directed him towards incredible recognition. 

It is popularly said of the Ramchal that he was a major influence on modern Hebrew literature, on the Ethics / mussar school of thought due to Mesilat Yesharim, the Vilna Gaon and followers esteemed the Ramchal, and even the Hasidic masters related to piety and spiritualism.

At the end of the day, he was a talented and pious individual, full of energy and ideas, who delved in many fields, but most of all, in the center, was a Lurianic messianist and teacher of spiritual truths.